
Glass tf2*fC0 

Book ' IV -/ 

Copyright^? 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



THE 

RELATION OF HEALING 

TO LAW 



BY 



PARLEY PAUL WOMER 



STUDIES IN PSYCHOTHERAPY 



MAONUM BONUM COMPANY 
CHICAGO 



Copyrighted 1909 
By Magnum Bonum Company 



LIBRARY cf CONGRESS 
Two Ccoies Received 

Gorwrijru Entrv 



THE 

RELATION OF HEALING 

TO LAW 



PARLEY PAUL WOMER 
Pastor of the Park Congregational Church, St. Paul, Minn. 

WITH 

ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS 

BY 

C. EUGENE RIGGS, M. D. 

Prof, of Nervous and Mental Diseases, Medical Department, 
University of Minnesota 

AND 

A. W. DUNNING, M. D. 

Clinical Professor of Nervous and Mental Diseases, Medical 
Department, University of Minnesota 

AND 

A CHAPTER ON PSYCHOTHERAPY 

BY 

ISADOR H. CORIAT, M. D. 
BOSTON, MASS. 



^ 



V 



«>h 



To the members and friends of Park Congregational Church, 
St. Paul, Minnesota, whose interest in the subject inspired the prepa- 
ration of these addresses, and at whose request they have been put 
into printed form. 



PREFACE. 

The following chapters were delivered as a 
Sunday evening course of addresses in the Park 
Congregational Church, St. Paul, Minn, They 
were not at first designed for publication. It 
was only in response to repeated requests that 
the writer decided when the course was nearly 
half completed to put them in book form with 
the hope that they might reach a larger audi- 
ence than the one for which they were origin- 
ally intended. 

Xo apology needs to be made for adding 
another to the list of books upon a subject, the 
importance of which is evidenced by the num- 
ber already offered to the public. 

It was not the aim of the writer to offer an 
original contribution upon the subject, but 
rather to reinterpret some phases of it and to 
re-emphasize certain principles which have al- 
ready been noticed by a large number of writ- 
ers, but which in the present widespread inter- 
est in the psychic treatment of disease needs 
to be kept steadily before the public mind. In 
the treatment of a subject of this character, and 



PREFACE. 

especially in a series of addresses designed to 
be popular, a certain amount of repetition is 
necessary. But it is hoped that the reiteration 
of certain fundamental principles and practical 
suggestions will enhance rather than detract 
from the value of the discussions. 

The questions which are answered by two 
distinguished neurologists are selected from a 
number which were handed in by members of 
the congregation. The remainder were omit- 
ted from this chapter containing questions and 
answers because the ground is already covered 
in the previous chapters. 

It is only fair to the gentlemen who have so 
kindly permitted their names to appear in con- 
nection with this volume to say that they are 
to be held responsible only for the ideas ex- 
pressed in the portions each severally contrib- 
uted. 

Parley P. Womer. 
St. Paul, March 15, 1909. 



I 

THE NEW HEALING MOVEMENT 
IN THE CHURCH 



"We must search out, set free, restore to honor 
the true life, assign things to their proper places, 
and remember that the center of human progress is 
moral growth." 

Charles Wagner. 

"All are but parts of one stupendous whole, 
Whose body nature is and God the soul." 

Wordsworth. 



CHAPTER I. 



THE NEW HEALING MOVEMENT IN THE 
CHURCH. 

There is perhaps no phase of activity in the 
Church, that in recent years has compelled such 
widespread attention as the "New Healing 
Movement/' The action 
Attention that the of Emmanuel Church, Bos- 
Movement has tQllj wkh whQse work the 

Compelled. , < , 

r movement has been most 

prominently associated, was only the spark that 
set fire to the fuel which has long been in prepa- 
ration. The challenge of the Healing Cults, and 
the evidence of genuine cases of healing under 
all these systems of belief, have led many 
thoughtful people in the Church to feel that an 
important element of the Christian message has 
been lost sight of, and needs to be recovered. 
It is this evident fact that explains the rapid 
progress that the movement has already made, 
having within a short time won for itself a 



12 THE RELATION OF HEALING. 

place unequalled, as one writer avers, by the 

general mind cure movement in half a century. 

"Nothing," says a friendly critic, "could be 

more straightforward than the account which 

the leaders of the New Healing Movement in 

the Church have given of 
Sensible Account thdr work With few ad _ 

which the Leaders ... . r -«• 

verse criticisms of other 
of the Movement ™ .. - ^ . ^ * 

, . - A - . lherapeutic doctrines * * 

have given of their , r 

\V or k ^ey show what they 

mean to accomplish and 
how they tentatively preceed. It is a satisfac- 
tion to find competent men dealing rationally 
with subjects which the incompetent have re- 
velled in. While attributing as much power 
to suggestion and re-education as the mental 
healers at large, they establish mental therapy 
upon a basis of psychological fact, free from 
questionable metaphysics on the one hand, and 
from confusion with religion on the other. The 
result is that mental healing can for the first 
time be established by its own right on a basis 
of accurate diagnosis, careful records, and 
scientifically describable methods of cure." 

It may be observed at this point that the 
psychological principles which underlie the new 
healing movement were by no means discovered 



THE NEW MOVEMENT IN THE CHURCH. 1 3 

by the men who have been the first to give 
them prominence in the work of the Christian 
Church. They have been recognized and used 
to some extent all through 
World-old history. But hitherto they 

Principles that are haye been presented ^^ 

Used. 1 , , 

such a coloring of super- 
stition or exaggeration that the sober mind 
has been repelled. It is only through the 
criticism and the research of recent years that 
the mis-apprehension has begun to clear, and 
their true character and therapeutic value have 
been revealed. It remains now to bring them 
within the reach of men at large. And in do- 
ing so the Church unquestionably has its share 
to contribute and its place to fill. 

It is only natural that the rapid progress 
of the New Healing movement in the Church 
should evoke criticism. Thinking perhaps of 

_ . . . „ ., , the so-called clinic work, 
Criticism Evoked ^ ^ ^ , 

, ,. ,, rather than the educa- 

by the Movement. 

tional aspect of the move- 
ment, it is regarded by not a few as a usurpa- 
tion by the Church of a function that does not 
rightly belong to it. And it is urged with 
great insistency that the treatment of nervous 
disorders is far too complicated to be under- 



14 THE RELATION OF HEALING- 

taken by any outside of the medical profes- 
sion. It is said that while perhaps some cures 
might be effected, there is also the risk of great 
harm being done even under the supervision of 
the most thoroughly trained psychologists. 
"The true function of the Clergyman/' says 
Dr. James Buckley,* "is to teach the ethical 
and spiritual doctrines of Christianity, and as 
an under shepherd, to visit the flock committed 
to his care. He should be in such relation to 
reputable physicians and surgeons as to direct 
those who require advice. He must also have 
the entree to hospitals. His prayers and com- 
munings in the sick room will sink into the 
depths of the mental and moral nature of the 
sufferer, cheering, comforting, strengthening 
and reinforcing every effort to cure or miti- 
gate his malady, inspiring him with hope of re- 
covery or immortality. All else the pastor 
should leave to the physician." 

In point of fact there is little likelihood or 
indication that the Church is about to be con- 
verted into a great hospital for the healing of 
men's bodies, or that the ministry is about to 
turn aside from its natural and legitimate 



*Dangers of the Emanuel Movement by Dr. James 
Buckley. 



THE NEW MOVEMENT IN THE CHURCH. 1 5 

sphere in order to usurp the place that belongs 
to the medical fraternity. It is always true in 
every sphere that a few 
No Danger of the improperly trained in- 
Church being con- dividuaK through sheer 

verted into a , t r . , , 

. - lack of judgment, are 

Hospital. t- 

ready to venture in 

"Where Angels fear to tread/' and the 
Clergy is no exception to the rule. But there 
is every reason to believe that, as a body, they 
can be trusted to be wisely conservative in deal- 
ing with this matter. And that by far the 
larger number who undertake to champion the 
movement will see to it that they have ade- 
quately prepared themselves to do so. 

Those who have sufficiently informed them- 
selves in regard to the New Healing Move- 
ment in the Church, and in regard to the prin- 
ciples upon which it is 
The Time Ripe based? ^ m for the most 

for the Church to , ,, , ,« ,. 

part agree that the time is 
undertake such a . ° t ^« 

Campaign. n P e for the Church t0 

undertake at least a cam- 
paign of education, that, on the one hand, will 
help to protect the public against the exagger- 
ated ideas and conceptions which in recent 
years have sprung up and flourished in our 



1 6 THE RELATION OF HEALING- 

midst, and that will serve, on the other hand, 
to promote conditions of greater health and 
happiness. The fact is unquestionable that a 
great throng of worthy but misguided people 
are being imposed upon to their lasting hurt 
by the extreme and exaggerated views and half 
truths that have found such extensive circula- 
tion among all classes of American society. The 
credulity of many and their readiness to be 
imposed upon by the methods of the charlatan 
are quite remarkable. There is an amusing 
story of a man who had lost a leg and who 
journed across the sea and half way across the 
continent in order to consult a faith healer and 
to have the leg restored. The healer was an 
astute man and he knew perfectly how to deal 
with such a patient. "My friend/' he said, 
"it would be an easy matter to supply you with 
a new leg, but you must understand that on 
the day of resurrection the leg which you have 
lost will rise also and you would then have 
three legs and you would have to go through 
,all eternity with three legs. Upon due re- 
flection the patient decided that it would be 
better to live out the remainder of his life with 
but one leg than to have three legs in heaven. The 
story is a good burlesque upon the amazing 



THE NEW MOVEMENT IN THE CHURCH. IJ 

credulity that is not infrequently displayed. 
And the trouble is, as a recent writer has 
pointed out, that the public in this country has 
not been properly trained in the principles of 
a sound psychology. The query was raised not 
long since in the writer's hearing, by a distin- 
guished European scholar, whether the success 
attained by the various healing cults in this 
country does not argue for the decline of the 
American intellect? But the real difficulty 
seems to be in the false education that the 
public has received. "In Europe," says a well 
informed writer,* "the general public has re- 
ceived such information as it possesses upon 
the subject of mental therapy at the hands of 
such men as Lebault, Bramwell, Dubois, 
Tuckey, Janet, and others who are skilled psy- 
chologists and trained scientific thinkers. And 
here in America the public has received its in- 
formation at the hands of Mrs. Mary Baker 
Eddy, Dr. John Alexander Dowie, and a few 
others, who to say the least were innocent of 
all scientific training, and who were as far re- 
moved as can be imagined from the scientific 
spirit. And the result is that while people in 
Europe regard the subject of Psychotherapy 



*"Psycho-Therapy and the Church," by Chancy J. 
Hawkins. 



l8 THE RELATION OF HEALING- 

with calm and judicial mind and consider it 
simply as one of the forces to be used by the 
trained physician, people in this country are 
filled with wonder over what seems to be such 
unaccountable cures, and many are led into an 
attitude of fanatical devotion to some new 
creed or startling philosophy." 

That many have followed the healing cults 
is only natural, and that not a few have re- 
ceived good is doubtless true. That genuine 
cures have been effected 
Natural that under all these systems of 

Many have fol- beHef cannQt wdl be de _ 

lowed the Healing . , ^ J ai 
c I nied. But to the compe- 

tent observer it is only too 
evident that the good which is being done is 
coupled with exaggerated and erroneous con- 
ceptions which need to be corrected lest they 
eventually lead to great and to far reaching 
harm." What the public needs to learn is that 
the same sort of cures which are so loudly 
proclaimed in the name of some creed or phil- 
osophy are being performed independently of 
all such exaggerated ideas and with more satis- 
factory results by scientific practitioners both 
in this country and in Europe/'* And if the 
New Healing Movement in the Church should 



*Chauncey J. Hawkins. 



THE NEW MOVEMENT IN THE CHURCH. 19 

accomplish nothing more than this, to clarify 
the public mind, and to create a more whole- 
some and rational attitude, it would be amply 
justified. The position of those who would 
commit the Church to silence in respect to this 
great matter, lest in some cases there should be 
excess, when there is such an obvious need of 
instruction of the right kind, and thousands 
are being imposed upon by the methods of the 
charlatan and the quack, is not one that is 
likely to receive the support of the best minds. 
And it is not merely to protect the public 
from exaggerations that a campaign of edu- 
cation is needed, but also to promote conditions 
Need of a of §" reater health and hap- 

Campaien piness. "The serious fact 

to Promote we have to face/' says the 

Conditions writer previously quoted, 

of Greater "is that the world is being 

Health. filled with nervous wrecks, 

and with sufferers not only in body but also in 
mind, because the world is being filled with sin- 
ners, because men behave themselves disorder- 
ly toward God and their fellow beings, and be- 
cause they live irrationally. Many have been 
trying hard to forget the spiritual side of life, 
and to live wholly for the outward and the ma- 



20 THE RELATION OF HEALING- 

terial, for what they eat and wear, and spend 
and use. They have taken the attitude of the 
man in the New Testament who said, T will 
pull down my barns and I will build greater, 
and there will I bestow my fruits and my 
goods.' And the result is nervous conditions 
of disease and irritation, and suffering, which 
are more acute and prevalent than in any other 
country, or at any other period of History. And 
God is calling to us through our nervous trou- 
bles, and sufferings, and He is saying to us as 
He said to the man of the New Testament, 
'Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required 
of thee/ " 

And it is also a fact that the Nation is be- 
coming full of people with diseased minds. The 
average person is very suggestable, far more 

so than is commonly real- 
Nation Becom- }zed . and the habits that 

ing full of « 

People with have gl '° Wn U P am0n S US 

t^. - _,. , to talk incessantly of our 

Diseased Minds. J - 

ailments, and to read pat- 
ent medicine circulars, and popular treaties upon 
medicine, one or more of which have found 
their way into every home, have suggested to 
hundreds that they are sick, and we have be- 



THE NEW MOVEMENT IN THE CHURCH. 21 

come a Nation of invalids and of faddists about 
cures. Nearly every one has an ailment which 
he seems to delight in talking about, and in 
describing to others. And he has also a rem- 
edy to propose to them for their ailments. In 
view of this obvious situation we ought to be 
prepared to welcome any movement in the 
Church that promises to bring us back to a 
more simple and wholesome attitude toward 
life, and to a more critical state of mind, and 
to a more natural pose. 

"In the moral life," says Charles Wagner,* 
"we govern ourselves. But in the immoral 
life we are governed by ambitions, grudges, 
passions, prejudices and whims. Thus little by 
little the basis of the moral life shifts, and the 
law of judgment deviates. The trouble is that 
in the confusions of our complex modern life 
many have lost their moral self-control and 
have become incapable of discerning and prac- 
ticing the good. And what the New Healing 
Movement seeks is to bring us back to a true 
moral base." 

The New Healing Movement in the Church 
is not an effort to establish a new dogma, but 



*"The Simple Life," by Charles Wagner. 



22 THE RELATION OF HEALING- 

simply an effort to apply some world-old prin- 
ciples. The leaders of the 
The Movement movement are well versed 

ElwithT ^ ^ the P rind P leS ° f P^- 

UrStablisn a , , , - . t 

t^ chology and their work 

new Dogma. \ <* 11 

from the first to the last 

is carried forward upon a scientific basis. They 
believe that the mind, within limits, has a 
power to influence the body; and they believe 
in the curative value of suggestion. They be- 
lieve that the true method of dealing with many 
ailments is by the progressive education of the 
reason and the will. Having discovered 
through proper diagnosis the real nature of 
the difficulty, they would lead the patient first 
of all to take a right attitude toward God and 
a right attitude toward life. They believe, con- 
sequently, in the value of good habits and a 
well regulated life. They believe in the ther- 
apeutic power of sunshine, of pure water and 
of fresh air, as well as of suggestion. And 
they believe in the therapeutic value of faith 
and prayer. The mistake has sometimes been 
made of supposing that God can heal in only 
one way. The leaders of the New Healing 
Movement believe that God heals in many 
ways. That He uses all restorative qualities 



THE NEW MOVEMENT IN THE CHURCH. 23 

of nature, that He uses the powers of the 
mind, and that He uses also the doctor's skill. 
The profoundly spiritual nature of the move- 
ment is indicated by the words of one writer 
when he says* — "Our minds are open and re- 
ceptive to all good influences, and the Spirit 
of God enters into us, and a power not our- 
selves takes possession of us." 



""'Religion and Medicine," by Drs. Worcester, Mc- 
Comb and Coriat. 



My own belief is, on the contrary, that if by 
"mind" we understand, as we should, one form of 
the living principle of which the humblest sorts of 
vital energy are other forms, we ought to say that 
the mind is the parent of the body. In other words, 
the ' 'function'' of an organ is, logically, responsible for 
its structure, and therefore for its health. 

James J. Putnam, M. D. 



II 

THE RELATION OF HEALING 
TO LAW 



"Of Law, there can be no less acknowledged than 
that her seat is the bosom of God, and her voice the 
harmony of the world." 

Hooker. 

"God has ever led the onword movement of His 
world, and leads it still. And we are to be His 
helpers." 

Brooke Herford. 



CHAPTER II. 



THE RELATION OF HEALING TO LAW- 

A distinguished medical practitioner has 
recently made the statement that he is not able 
to heal even a pin prick. More impressive, 
but of the same purport, 
Representative are the f amoU s words of 

Opinions of Ambrose Pare, which are 

s ' said to have been inscribed 

over the portal of his operating room, "I dress 
their wounds and God heals them." These 
indeed are modest claims, especially when com- 
pared with the extravagant pretensions of heal- 
ing which at the present time are so often 
made. And these words, unquestionably, rep- 
resent a great and far reaching truth. Nature 
herself is the one true healer; and Nature ad- 
mits of no rivals. Perhaps the religious man 
would prefer that I should say God. The 
Scientist says Nature, the religious man says 
God. But for the purposes of this discussion 
it may be assumed that the ways of Nature 



28 THE RELATION OF HEALING- 

and the ways of God are one. God acts 
through Nature and we may confidently be- 
lieve that the ways of Nature are the ways of 
God. 

Starting with the lowest creatures and as- 
cending through the entire scale of life, we find 
that there is everywhere a great healing force 
at work. If a branch is 
Illustrations broken from a tree, a great 

in £ process of healing at once 

in Nature. , . , 

begins m order to restore 

the damage that has been done. If in the 

spring or summer a gash is made in the sod 

by the plow or the spade, quietly and silently 

a healing process sets to work and in due time 

the bare and ugly surface is covered with a 

sheen of living green. As someone* has put it, 

"The very winds become messengers, the birds 

carry seed. Even the earth worms do their 

humble service." And in a little while the 

raw wound has been grassed over and healed. 

We cannot actually see the quiet restorative 

process by which Nature proceeds to make 

right the damage that has been done. It is 

like the hour-hand of a clock, or like the shad- 



*The Small End of Great Problems," by Brooke 
Herford. 



THE LAW. 29 

ow of the sun. It gets from point to point, 
but you cannot see the movement. And if, 
when a wound has been made in any part of 
the body, it is properly dressed and cared for 
and nature is given a chance, how soon the 
healing process sets to work. In due time the 
broken tissues are brought together and the 
damage that was made is repaired. What the 
physician does in the work of healing is merely 
to assist. He studies the ways of nature, and 
finds out how nature works, and humbly tries 
to work with her, and to follow in her ways. 
And just here is revealed the difference be- 
tween the scientist and the pretender, between 
the true doctor and the quack. 

The true doctor patiently studies the ways 

of nature, another seeks 

Difference to put himself in line with 

between the her and j and 

Scientist and . u u ™ 

~> , to work with her. I he 

Pretender. 

pretender works at ran- 
dom, his method is that of "hit or miss." It 
must of course be recognized that many times 
the quack succeeds. He is somehow able on 
occasions to hit the mark, and real cures are 
effected. But, after all, the methods of the 
quack are always accompanied with great risk. 



30 THE RELATION OF HEALING- 

The man who fires a gun into the air with his 
eyes shut may sometimes wing a bird, but the 
chances are even greater that he will hit some- 
thing that he has not meant or desired to hit. 
It ought not to be difficult for the average per- 
son to decide which is the better course, and 
which is the safer road for humanity to travel, 
that which is represented by scientific research 
or that which is represented by the method of 
"hit or miss." 

It may be said without fear of serious con- 
tradiction, that one of the greatest discoveries 
of modern times is that nothing ever happens. 

We talk about things hap- 
The Universality pening? but in reality> 

of Law. ,1 • i 

nothing ever happens, 

there is no such thing as chance. Everything 
has a cause. We are living in a world that is 
governed by law. "There is no place, or space, 
or condition that is exempt from the dominion 
of law. The crystal dew drop, the gentle 
zephyr, the shimmering wavelet, the fleecy 
cloud, the glorious beauty of the sunset, are 
what they are because of the mandate of law. 
The graceful beauty, the delicate coloring of 
every flower, twig and bush, shrub and tree, 
are determined by the workings of law. The 



THE LAW. 31 

delicate shaping of the bird's wing or the in- 
sect's foot is determined by law. The rain, 
the cyclone, the volcano, the earthquake, the 
pestilence, and the famine, are somehow related 
to law, although, perhaps we do not under- 
stand just how."* And may we not go further 
and say that all of man's growth, his develop- 
ment physical, mental, and spiritual, are de- 
termined by law? 

Man's institutions, his governments, his 
civilization, his religious systems are all de- 
termined through his relation to law. And this 
also is true of his sensibilities. His joy, his 
pain, his blessings, and every other state of 
consciousness, are determined through his rela- 
tion to law. In the outer world everything, 
from the mote that floats in the sunbeam, to 
the movements of the uttermost star, are de- 
termined by the operation of the law. 

Sometimes, we speak of "breaking a law." 
If one has taken a cold, or is afflicted with 
headache he declares that he has broken some 
law. But in point of fact the statement is in- 
correct and misleading. We cannot break a 
law. The law still continues to operate. It is 
not possible for a finite being to break an in- 

**'Studies in the Thought World," by Henry Wood. 



32 THE RELATION OF HEALING- 

finite law. It is the man himself who is broken. 
And our various ills and weaknesses, our ab- 
normalities, and perversions, and sufferings, 
are the evidence and outcome of man's collision 
with law. 

It is true of course that transgression often 
reaches farther back than the individual. It 
not infrequently happens that the individual 

suffers for the transgres- 
Influence of sions of a family ^ or a 

Heredity. ,. , 

J generation or a people. 

The old statement of the Bible writer that "The 
iniquities of the parents are visited upon the 
children to the third and fourth generation," 
is full of keen observation and profound wis- 
dom. Take for example this curious incident.* 
It is said that a certain man once tried to kill 
his wife by throwing her from a boat while 
they were crossing a river. The woman kept 
herself from sinking by holding to the side of 
the boat, and in his furious rage the man struck 
her with an axe and severed two of her fingers. 
But somehow she was rescued, and later on a 
reconciliation was effected, and they lived hap- 
pily together. But for several succeeding gen- 
erations every male child that was born to the 

*"Mind Power and Privileges," by Olson. 



THE LAW 33 

family had those two fingers missing. Such is 
the subtle and mysterious working of life's 
laws. The time is surely ripe for a movement 
that has for its object to inspire men with a 
greater reverence for law, and a greater eager- 
ness to understand their relations to law. There 
is no cult, or system, or physician possessed of 
authority to offer health or healing upon any 
other condition than the recognition of law and 
obedience to law. What a great many foolish 
people are evidently seeking to find is a sub- 
stitute for obedience, some short cut that will 
enable them to escape the laws of life; but it 
cannot be found. Most emphatically, it can- 
not be found. The supreme wisdom in the 
matter of health and healing is to recognize the 
laws of life and to try to be in accord with law. 
It is not only true that law is universal, 

_ _. and that when ignored 

Beneficence , ,. , , . , 

r , and disobeyed it works 

of Law. . 

harm; it is equally true 

that in itself it is beneficent and when rightly 

used it becomes the source of unfathomable 

good. One who puts himself on the side of 

law is coupling himself with an infinite force 

that will re-enforce and strengthen his life on 

every side, and that will make in every way for 



34 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

happiness and health. Civilized peoples are just 
beginning to realize that the greatest word in 
the human language is the word obedience. As 
Phillips Brooks once put it,* "To the obedient 
man nothing can refuse its richness. To the 
obedient man nature opens her arms and re- 
ceives him to her inmost heart." Strange as it 
may seem upon first thought, there is not a 
force in God's world that is so hostile but that 
if we understand it, and if we treat it after its 
nature, if we obey it, it becomes an ally, a 
helper, a friend. Take for example the light- 
ning. In the dim past the lightning was sup- 
posed to be man's greatest enemy, but through 
scientific research, we have come, in some 
measure, to understand the laws of lightning, 
and it has been transformed into a servant, 
carrying our tenderest messages like a pitying 
slave. And understanding the laws of fire, 
and obeying those laws, the fire forges our iron, 
cooks our meals, and warms and lights our 
homes. But if we disobey the laws of fire, and 
act in opposition to them, what a fiend it be- 
comes. It would destroy your home in an 
hour, and in a single night it would sweep a 
whole city from the face of the earth. When we 



*Sermon — "An Evil Spirit from the Lord," 



THE LAW 35 

obey the fire, it is a friend and an ally. When 
we disobey, it becomes a fiend. What we call 
science is just the simple, childlike study of 
nature's ways, and of life's laws. And science 
by teaching us to understand these laws is con- 
verting them from enemies into allies, helpers 
and friends. 

This therefore is the first great truth of 
health and healing that every man has need to 
learn. Life cannot be forced and coerced into 

wilfully selected channels. 
Life Cannot TT ,. t < ; A 

~ , Until men have mastered 

be Coerced. , . r 

this fundamental truth 

there is nothing but struggle and suffering for 
them. We sometimes hear it said of certain 
people that their attitude is all wrong, and the 
meaning is that they have not yet come into a 
proper consciousness of life's conditions and 
laws. They are still asserting their own way as 
opposed to the way of the Universe. Instead 
of taking their cue from life they are trying to 
force life into channels and ways of their own 
choosing. That is the pitiful tragedy of hu- 
manity ; and it is at the back of all the world's 
misery and heartache. The first great lesson 
that the average man has need to learn is that 



36 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

of obedience to law. We cannot change the 
laws of life since they spring from God. But 
every man can change his attitude toward law, 
since it springs from himself. And by chang- 
ing his attitude he can change his world, and 
he can change himself. By changing his atti- 
tude he can modify, and in a deep sense he can 
re-make himself from his inmost heart to his 
out-most muscle and fibre. Religious teaching 
has had much to say about a new birth, and we 
have applied the doctrine wholly to the life 
within. 

We are coming now to realize that the 

truth represented by this term applies to the 

whole nature and personality. But to guard 

against extravagance we 

Recreation as j iave s ; mp iy to recognize 

a Process. .*-, , . • 

that re-creation is a pro- 
cess ; and it is a process that is conditioned. It 
exacts obedience. It does not even begin ex- 
cept we pay the price. But to the obedient 
there is the reward of new and abounding life, 
physical, mental, moral and spiritual. 

It is rather curious that intelligent people 
everywhere have come to recognize this fact 
in its application to the ordinary prudences of 



THE LAW 37 

life, in respect to food, to clothing, to exercise 
and such like, to all the simpler and more ob- 
vious hygienic laws, while 
Influence of ver y f ew j iave come t rec _ 

^Ld n s a t 1 afe t s titUdeS ° §niZe kS a PP lication to 
our mental attitudes and 

states. To a great many very thoughtful people 
it is yet rather new thought that mental atti- 
tudes have anything in particular to do with the 
body or with the determination of bodily con- 
ditions ; and that to enjoy health and happiness 
one must exercise as great care in regard to his 
habitual mental states as he does in regard to 
his food or sleep or exercise. Take for exam- 
ple the mental and emotional state that is 
spoken of as anger. How seldom it is real- 
ized that anger represents a state of mind that 
is damaging to health. 

Everyone who stops to think of it is aware 
that many a man in a violent fit of anger has 
caused his own death. Even when the result 

is not fatal it tends never- 
Influence a-- - ,. 

r A theless to produce dis- 

of Anger. . \ . 

ordered circulation, exces- 
sive heat, muscular strain and such like. If the 
fit of anger passes off without outward expres- 
sion in deeds of violence, it may nevertheless 



38 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

produce ravages in the bodily organism which 
are detrimental to health. And if on the other 
hand it actually finds expression in some overt 
act, the consequences may be even more pain- 
fully apparent. 

It may be that the victim of a fit of anger 
is a conscientious person who most truly de- 
sires to be righteous, who is sincerely trying to 
be a Christian. When, in such a one, the heat 
of anger has burned itself out and his senses 
return, he is apt to be mortified and discour- 
aged and to take an attitude of censure toward 
himself, thereby falling into a mental state 
which is likewise an enemy to happiness and 
health. Sometimes the hot flame of anger dies 
down and leaves a smouldering grudge that 
lasts throughout life, the whole nature and per- 
sonality, both soul and body, being poisoned 
by it. 

And more prolific of evil is the mental state 

that is represented by fear. Suppose that you 

have some terrible news 

r ~ to break to a friend. You 

of Fear. 

find him joyous and glad, 

radiant with hope and vitality. Then break 

your news, and what a difference is created! 

His face grows pale, his eyes begin to stare, 



THE LAW 39 

his limbs tremble, and, when the full force of 
the shock breaks upon his mind, you have to 
support him to keep him from falling. In such 
a case you cannot help but feel that the one 
attitude makes for life and the other makes 
for weakness and death. How many there are 
whose lives are lived in the bondage of fear! 
In other years it was fear of ghosts or witches 
or demons. At the present time it is fear of 
microbes, of bacteria, of business failure, of 
poverty, or of the death of themselves or their 
friends. Every pain and ailment awakens a 
fear, and life is lived in a state of daily bond- 
age to fear. Though luckily for us Nature is 
able to throw off many of the results of this 
folly, there is need to realize that fear as a state 
of mind is ruinous to health, and not infre- 
quently prepares the way for disease. 

In the words of Prof. James,* "There is 
no sort of consciousness whatever, be it sensa- 
tion, feeling, or idea which does not directly 
and of itself tend to discharge into some motor 
effect/' The motor effect need not always be 
an outer stroke of behavior. It may be only 
an alternation of the heartbeats, or of the 
breathing, or a modification in the distribution 



*Principles of Psychology. 



40 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

of the blood. And yet, in any case it is there 
in some shape when consciousness is there. In 
the words of Tichner — * "It is a rule with- 
out exception that every mental process has as 
its condition a bodily process, some change in 
the central nervous system and more particu- 
larly in the cerebral cortex. No psychosis 
without neurosis; there is no mental state 
which has not a peculiar nervous state corre- 
sponding to it." Thus it is that in some way> 
every mental state registers itself in the physi- 
cal organism. Is it not therefore evident, in 
view of this fact, that there is need for us to 
turn attention earnestly and seriously toward 
the investigating and better understanding of 
the mind powers and its influence upon the 
bodily life? 

Emerson said that the mind is the man, but 

most people, including the 

Failure of doctors, have failed to take 

Medical this intQ account With- 

Practitioners. ,< < , . , ,. £ 

out the least intention of 

casting reflection upon the medical fraternity 

it must nevertheless be said that the doctors, 

with all the rest of us, have failed to take 

proper account of mental attitudes and states. 



*Cited by Olson. 



THE LAW 41 

Until the present moment the average practi- 
tioner has been satisfied to treat man simply 
as a body. A doctor highly distinguished in 
his profession was summoned to my own home 
to attend a patient. He looked at the invalid, 
examined the tongue, felt the pulse, listened 
to the breathing, and then said, "It is a terrible 
cough you have contracted, it will take you a 
long time to recover." And looking into the 
face of the invalid he said, "You are awfully 
delicate anyhow." He left some pills and took 
his departure. It is no disrespect to the med- 
ical profession to say that such a doctor, no 
matter what school he has graduated from, 
what diploma he holds, or what title he wears, 
has not yet learned the first principles of the 
true doctor's work. You cannot treat the body 
independently of the mind and do it successfully. 
Already a few strong members of the med- 
ical profession are fully 
Changing awake to the importance 

Attitude f mental states and have 

of Medical achieved marked success 

in treating certain bodily 
ailments through the mind. We truly believe 
that it may confidently be predicted that the 
time is not far distant when the great body of 



42 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

physicians will recognize this principle; and, 
when they do, it will be a long step upwards 
for humanity in dealing with the problem of 
disease. Indeed, may it not be said, that in the 
rational effort to explore man's mental powers 
and resources and to use them more advis- 
ably we are in reality performing an act of 
faith and drawing upon the Infinite Power? 
It is through the rational part of us that we 
are most directly related to God. Our mem- 
tal powers and resources, if we only know it, 
are manifestations of Him. We have not to 
ascend into heaven nor to descend into the 
deeps in order to find Him. He is present in 
the workings of the mind and in the action of 
mental laws, and is therein expressing himself. 
But this is something that we have somehow 
failed to realize, and it has meant a loss beyond 
measure. 



Ill 

THE PSYCHIC FACTOR 
IN HEALING 



" 'Tis the mind that makes the body rich." 

Shakespeare. 

"Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ 
Jesus." The Apostle Paul. 



CHAPTER III. 



THE PSYCHIC FACTOR IN HEALING. 

There is a somewhat amusing story that 
has come to us from the early days of New 
England when the first effort was being made 
to put stoves into the 
churches as a means of 
heating. It is said that a 
great deal of opposition to the plan was raised 
upon the ground that the stove would make the 
air unfit for breathing. There was one good 
woman in particular, who was very hostile to 
the project. She opposed it in all sorts of 
ways, and she declared at last that she knew 
she would faint the very first Sunday that a 
stove was put into her church. But, in spite 
of the objections, the stove was installed, and, 
true to her surmise, the woman fainted and was 
carried from the church in an apparently life- 
less condition. When the truth became known, 
it was found that sufficient pipe had not been 



46 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

secured, the proper connections had not been 
made, there was no fire in the stove, and the 
air of the church was just as usual. The in- 
cident in a measure serves to illustrate what is 
meant by the influence of the psychic factor. 
It was not, of course, the stove that caused the 
woman to faint, it was her attitude of fear, it 
was the influence of the mind upon the body. 
A distinguished psychologist calls attention 
to the fact that we talk, and laugh, and weep, 
and blush, and shiver, and hunger, and perspire, 

and digest, and perform 
Testimony of aU sJmilar acts through 

y 8 ' the influence of the brain 

cortex. And he declares that there is not a 
single physiological act but that can be instantly 
arrested by a mental act. Prof. Ladd, for twen- 
ty years the distinguished professor of psy- 
chology in Yale University, and one of the 
most distinguished thinkers along these lines, 
has called attention to the fact that the effects 
capable of being produced by the mind upon 
the body are "clear, and positive and consid- 
able."* He declares, that while in all genera- 
tions these effects have been the chief ther- 
apeutic agents of the charlatan and the quack, 



* Article in "The Medical Times." 



PSYCHIC FACTOR 47 

yet the scientific physician has not been willing 
to trust them as much as experience warrants 
or as psychology dictates. This then is what 
is meant by the influence of the psychic factor 
— the effects which are capable of being pro- 
duced by the action of the mind upon the body. 
It would be both interesting and profitable 
at this point to consider the deleterious and evil 
effects of abnormal mental states, conditions, 
and activities upon the 
Abnormal Mental character and the bodily 
States for the fife But - { for the 

Present Ignored. ,«. , - ,, 

present this phase of the 

subject, attention is here called to the effects 
which the mind is capable of producing in 
healing. 

It may be said to begin with that even 
Value of many when medical treatment is 

Drugs is in the employed the mind has a 

Powerful Sug- great office to fil1 an d an 

gestion that they important service to ren- 
make to the der. It is true, indeed, 

Mind. that the chief value of 

many drugs which are commonly administered 
in sickness is in the powerful suggestion that 
is thereby made to the mind of the patient, to 
the new mental attitude which is thereby in- 



48 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

duced. It is a matter of common knowledge 
that in not a few cases of illness, even when 
the medical treatment is everything that could, 
be desired, the patient, nevertheless, does not 
make a satisfactory progress towards recovery, 
until in some way the mental attitude is affected 
and a new mental state is secured. Examples 
of this kind are so numerous that nearly every- 
one who stops to reflect can recall from his own 
observations some instance of similar nature. 
It is sufficiently evident, therefore, that even 
when medical treatment is employed the psychic 
factor as a therapeutic force and influence can- 
not be safely ignored. At the siege of Breda, 
in the year 1625, when the Prince of Orange 
with the Dutch army was besieged by the 
Spaniards, it is said, that owing to the preva- 
lence of an epidemic amongst the soldiers the 
famous Prince was forced to consider very seri- 
ously the matter of capitulation. By acting 
upon the advice of Dr. Van der Mye, a distin- 
guished Dutch physician of the times, he de- 
termined to try a ruse. A small phial of medi- 
cine was issued to every surgeon in the army 
and the rumor was put into circulation that 
a single drop of it was sufficient to give a heal- 
ing potency to a gallon of liquor. The Journal 



PSYCHIC FACTOR 49 

of Dr. Van der Mye is authority for the state- 
ment that the outcome of the stratagem ap- 
peared nothing short of magical. In the course 
of a few days a large number of soldiers who 
had not been able for weeks to leave their beds 
were seen walking the streets, and they were 
sound, upright and in perfect health. The 
strength of the army was thereby so recuper- 
ated that the thought of surrender was aban- 
doned and aggressive measures were begun. 
No less instructive in its bearing upon the 
subject under discussion is the belief in the 
healing efficacy of the king's touch that once 
prevailed. It is upon rec- 

Effi ef ^ ° rd that the king ° f Eng " 

, TT .. land was accustomed at in- 

the Healing . 

the Kind's tervals to take his station 

Touch, in a public place, and 

many of the sick, the dis- 
eased and the suffering passed before him and 
were healed by his simple touch. It is said that 
Henry VIII, of England, cured in this way as 
many as 2,000 people in one day. These re- 
ports no doubt were greatly exaggerated, just 
as similar reports of healings in our day have 
been, but there is every reason to think that 
they represent at least a modicum of truth, 



50 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

and that in this way many genuine cures were 
wrought. 

Students of history know that all through 
the years certain cures have been effected at 
the shrines of saints, and by means of relics and 
charms, and in various 
Cures Effected other ways of a corre- 

at the Shrines sponding nature. There is 

and bv Means of nQ Christian Science 

Relics and .... , . , 

p, titioner, or faith curist, or 

mental healer, who can 
boast of greater cures than have been effected 
all through the centuries simply through the 
medium of relics and charms, or a visit to one 
of the various shrines. At the famous shrine at 
Lourdes, near the city of Paris, where the Vir- 
gin is said to have appeared, there is to be 
found a great monument constructed from the 
canes and crutches of those who came limping, 
and halting, and went away without the need 
of physical support of any kind. And there is 
evidence that beyond Christian countries, in 
heathen lands, and among savage tribes many 
similar cures have been wrought by the incan- 
tations of the medicine man or the witch doc- 
tor, who was supposed to be in league with the 
unseen powers. Missionary literature contains 



PSYCHIC FACTOR 5 1 

information of Christian missionaries who, in 
trying to re-inforce their message by appealing 
to the healing wonders of Jesus, have been met 
by the rejoinder that their own medicine-men 
could accomplish wonders of a similar kind. 
It may be assumed that in all these agencies 
there was a common curative element. The 
real potency was not in the King's touch, nor 
in the relic, nor in the charm, nor in the shrine, 
nor in the incantations of the witch-doctor, 
but in the new attitude of mind that was in- 
duced — an attitude that was made possible by 
the general belief in the potency of the means 
that was used. It was, in other words, the 
psychic factor. It may be said, therefore, in 
passing, that mental healing is by no means of 
recent origin. Under some name it has been 
used in all times, by all peoples, and in all coun- 
tries. There is no church, or sect, or cult, that 
has a monopoly of it. It is a method that is 
within the reach of all, and the right to use it 
belongs to all. 

What are the limitations of the psychic 
factor? What in the light of present knowl- 
edge are we justified in claiming for the action 
of the mind as a healing force? The question 
is of paramount importance. It needs to be 



52 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

considered with care. In times of general 
interest, or of popular 
Limitations of excitement growing out of 

the Psyschic ,. 

J some new discovery, or 

the emergence of some 
new truth, there is always a great risk that we 
shall be driven beyond the bounds of common 
sense. There is danger, at such times, of our 
being led to claim too much — that we shall in- 
dulge expectations and conceptions not justi- 
fied by scientific knowledge. Take for example 
the tremendous expectation that was aroused 
something over a decade ago by the discovery 
of the X-ray. Nearly every periodical con- 
tained some startling account of the therapeu- 
tic possibilities of this wonderful discovery, 
and we began to think it was going to prove a 
panacea for all our ills. But these expectations 
have not been realized. It is true, indeed, that, 
within limits, the X-ray has proven itself a 
valuable addition to the treatment of certain 
ills; but the great hopes that were once cher- 
ished have by no means been fulfilled. In the 
present widespread interest in the mental treat- 
ment of disease there is need that we guard 
ourselves against going beyond the bounds of 
common sense. 



PSYCHIC FACTOR 53 

What then are we justified in claiming for 

the psychic factor? In the judgment of the 

best thinkers in this field its chief value as a 

therapeutic agent is in 

Chief Value of dealing with that class 

of ailments which do not 
Treatment. 1 , .* t • 

involve any perceptible in- 
jury to the organs or to the bodily parts, that 
is to say, where there is no structural change 
of tissue as far as can be discerned. In other 
words it is suited to the so-called functional, 
as opposed to the organic troubles. 

Just at this point the popular mind needs to 
be clarified, and accurate information needs 
to be obtained. The claim is freely made 

by the representatives of 
The Need of Christian Science and of 

Exact Knowledge, £ .,* u r ,,, , . 

& faith healing that certain 

organic troubles have been cured. It is not in- 
frequently said, for example, that by such 
means paralysis has been cured. But what is 
probably meant is simply that someone who 
could not walk, or that someone who could not 
use his arms, has been cured. In his recent 
book, entitled "Health and Happiness," Bishop 
Fallows describes a typical case of this kind. A 
certain man who could neither walk nor use 



54 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

his arms, was brought to him for treatment, 

and in the course of only two weeks he had 

so far recovered that he was able to walk the 

streets and to use his arms as if nothing had 

ever troubled them. But this, in point of fact, 

was not a case of real paralysis. It was simply 

a case of hysteria. The man's ailment was 

functional and not organic. 

And this also may be true of many other 

difficulties which from the symptoms appear to 

be of a serious organic nature. It is possible 

that one may not be able 
Organic Symp- tQ hear ^ that he may not 

toms may be be abk tQ ge ^ thaj _ he 

Counterfeited. ,111 1 1 

not be able to speak, and 

yet the difficulty may be psychic and hysteric 
and not at all organic. It is possible for one to 
have pains in the stomach which lead him to 
feel that he is afflicted with tumor or cancer- 
ous trouble, and yet the difficulty may be simply 
hysterical. It is possible to have pains about 
the heart which suggest to one symptons of or- 
ganic heart trouble, and yet the difficulty may 
be wholly functional. 

The truth seems to be that there is scarcely 
an organic difficulty the symptons of which 
may not be counterfitted by the mind and func- 



PSYCHIC FACTOR 55 

tionally reproduced. There is upon record the 
case of a patient who was about to undergo an 
operation for tumor, but, when the patient was 
etherized, the tumor disappeared. It was then 
seen to have been a case of phantom tumor, a 
difficulty that was purely hysterical and there- 
fore not organic. Dr. Prince, one of the great- 
est authorities upon physical treatment of ner- 
vous disorders, contributes an amusing story of 
a lady who was afflicted with a violent attack 
of hay-fever every time she saw a rose. On 
one occasion the doctor brought to her an arti- 
ficial rose, which, as soon as the woman saw it, 
began to excite an attack of hay-fever. He 
then showed her the deception and demon- 
strated to her that there was an entire absence 
of pollen, when at once the ailment vanished 
and has never since returned. From personal 
observation I am convinced that, even in the 
case of very serious organic difficulties, the 
symptons may be counterfitted and functionally 
reproduced. When a boy of fourteen, having 
an eye to business, and hoping to make some 
money after school hours and on Saturdays, I 
became an agent for a patent medicine concern. 
The remedy was said to be a wonderful one; 
its trade mark was the picture of an Indian 



56 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

Chief with an unpronounceable name; and it 
was said to have the power of curing nearly 
every human ill. It most certainly was the 
means of effecting many cures in that small 
country town. It cured headache and backache, 
stomachache, and every other kind of ache. It 
cured at least one case of alleged tuberculosis. 
It must be confessed that I did not really know 
it to be tuberculosis. I had made no diagnosis, 
and could not have made one had I tried; but 
the woman thought she had it, and we simply 
took her word for it. Her friends, too, thought 
she had it, because she manifested certain ordi- 
nary symptons of it. Well, the patent medicine 
worked her cure ; she gave a testimonial to that 
effect, which the company published, and which 
helped greatly to further the business. 

Is it not evident in the light of such facts, 
that there is imperative need of competent 

diagnosis? How is the 
Need of unskilled practitioner to 

Competent distinguish between these 

types of ailment? Be- 
tween functional paralysis and real paralysis ? Be- 
tween counterfeit symptons and real symptons ? 
In the great wave of interest in mental healing 
that is sweeping over the country there is in- 



PSYCHIC FACTOR 57 

volved a serious danger against which the pub- 
lic needs to be guarded. We owe it to our- 
selves and to others to do some careful think- 
ing at this point and to seek such accurate 
knowledge in reference to the limitations and 
possibilities of psychotherapy as may be ob- 
tained. 

Does it follow from what has been said 
that the mind has nothing to do in the treat- 
ment of the more serious troubles that are 

classified as organic? Such 
Value of an i n f erence j s by n o 

Psychic Treat- means tQ fee made In 

ment in Dealing: - -. . , e 

with the more dealm & wlth ever y form 

Serious Troubles. of ailment the mmd has a 

great service to render. 
Take the case of a patient who is being treated 
for incipient cancer, or tuberculosis, or some- 
thing else of a really serious organic type, and 
let us suppose that the patient is in a state of 
worry and mental distress, — is bearing upon 
his mind some great spiritual and moral bur- 
den, which makes it impossible for him to offer 
the proper resistance to his disease. His body 
is trying to get well, but his mental attitude 
is constantly obstructing the way. The doc- 
tors are doing all they can on the physical side, 



58 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

and, it may be, with small avail. Now is it not 
evident that, if the physician combines with 
his ordinary treatment the aid of mind and 
spirit, that the patient's chances of recovery 
are thereby increased? 

There is upon record the case of a woman 
who underwent a serious surgical operation 
and the wound refused to heal. She was 
brought home to die. A 
Typical Case of new physician was sum- 
the Treatment of mo ned, who saw at once 
an Organic that the pat i ent was b ear _ 

Trouble by , * , 

_ , . „ iner some load upon her 

Psychic Means. . , , . ., f . . 

mind which stood in the 

way of recovery. Accordingly his first effort 
was directed toward securing a proper mental 
and spiritual state, and, as soon as he succeeded 
in establishing this, recovery began. But at 
that point trouble occurred in the woman's 
home: A child was stricken with a serious ill- 
ness. Then immediately a reaction came in her 
own condition ; again her life was despaired of ; 
and it was only after the most strenuous efforts 
that thephysican succeeded in again relieving the 
mind and securing the proper mental and spirit- 
ual co-operation. When he did so, convales- 
cence at once ensued and ultimate recovery fol- 
lowed. 



PSYCHIC FACTOR 59 

It seems very clear, therefore, that the mind 
has an office to fulfill, and a contribution to 
make in dealing with every ailment. In many 
troubles a right mental attitude is all that is 
needed in order to insure recovery; and in 
many troubles of a more serious character it 
is a powerful adjunct. 

It is evident that a little earnest effort upon 
the part of ministers and churches to do some 
sound thinking in reference to this important 

matter will just now be of 
How the Church , , «... « 

xx , great service to multitudes 

can Help. °_ , . , i TT , 

of people. An old Hebrew 

prophet complains bitterly that his people had 
gone astray, and that they were "consuming 
themselves" because of lack of knowledge. 
Something like this is true of the people at the 
present moment. Exaggerated conceptions of 
healing have come because of the general fail- 
ure to think scientifically and accurately. Peo- 
ple once again are being consumed because of 
the lack of knowledge. We are urged by the 
New Testament to prove all things, to put all 
things to the test and to hold fast that which is 
good. I believe that at this particular time the 
Church can attempt no service that is more 
badly needed, or that is more religious, than 



60 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

that of educating the people in the elements 
of sound thinking with respect to healing prin- 
ciples and laws. 



IV 

THE SPIRITUAL FACTOR 
IN HEALING 



"All are bigots who limit the Divine within the 
boundaries of their present knowledge." 

Margaret Fuller. 

"In Him we live and move and have our being." 

Paul. 

"The Eternal God is thy refuge and underneath 
are the everlasting arms." 

The Old Testament. 



CHAPTER IV, 



THE SPIRITUAL FACTOR IN HEALING. 

There is no aspect of our theme that calls 
for such careful and discriminating state- 
ments as the state of the Spiritual Factor. 
There is great confusion 
Present at ^[ s p j n t ? and it arises 

Confused Esti- from the fact that we do 

mate of Spiritual , , , W i 

^ ^ m r not see dearly, What we 

Values in , 

tt y see depends upon our sen- 

sitiveness. The man who 
sees most on the ocean is not the traveler who 
is making his first voyage, it is the sailor on 
the lookout. The sailor declares that a vessel 
is on the horizon. The landsman cannot see it 
because his eyes are not sufficiently sensitive, 
So in dealing with the great matters of the 
spirit we need to learn to see; and until we 
have all learned to see better, the present con- 
fused estimate of spiriutal values in healing 
will in every likelihood continue. 



64 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

We have heard much all through the years 
about the faith healers. Staking everything 
upon the Bible statement that "The prayer of 

faith shall heal the sick," 
ai the faith-healers dispense 

with the use of all material 
means. They depend wholly upon the ther- 
apeutic power of faith and prayer. An inter- 
esting, yet sad, occurrence in illustration of this 
belief is reported by Dr. Buckley,* the distin- 
guished editor of New York Advocate. A 
young missionary of the Methodist denomina- 
tion, in the grasp of the deadly African fever, 
said to his friends, "I am not sick, I am only 
weak, but I take the promise, 'He giveth 
strength to the weak/ and I do receive the 
fact." The physician of the station called upon 
him and said to him, "Charlie, your tempera- 
ture is 105, your pulse is 130, the normal is 98, 
the dividing line between life and death is 103. 
Unless you will take something to break up 
this fever, death is only a question of time with 
you." Said the young man, "I shall die then, 
for I will not take medicines." In spite of the 
warning he had received, and notwithstanding 
the fact that several others of the missionary 



* "Faith Healing-," by J. M. Buckley, L. L. D. 



SPIRITUAL FACTOR 65 

colony had been stricken down with the same 
trouble and had recovered under medical treat- 
ment, the young missionary, true to his convic- 
tions, refused to receive the medicine at the 
doctor's hands and, as had been foreseen, in 
the course of a few days his life went out and 
a promising career was prematurely ended. 
The incident is fairly illustrative of the splen- 
did, if mistaken, courage and conviction which 
are not infrequently exhibited by those of this 
cult. 

The doctrine of faith-healing in its modern 

form takes us back to the beginning of the 

nineteenth century, when Prince Hohenlohe, a 

bishop of the Roman Cath- 

_, . , Y ,. olic Church, taught this 

Faith-Healing. , . , * -^ 

doctrine throughout Eu- 
rope and practiced the art of healing with 
marked success, according to the testimony of 
his followers, depending upon no other materia 
medica than that of faith and prayer. Other 
conspicuous representatives of this belief were 
the famous Irish priest, Father Matthew, an- 
other priest named Joseph Gasson, of whom 
marvelous tales are related, a woman named 
Dorothy Trudell, who for many years con- 
ducted a faith cure establishment at Mann- 
5 



66 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

heim, in Germany, and a man named Board- 
man, who established a well known institution 
in London that is known as Bethshan, to which 
in other years hundreds of people resorted, and 
where wonderful cures are reputed to have 
taken place. The greatest representatives of 
the faith-healing cult in this country, Dr. 
Charles Cullus, of Boston, who gave to Old 
Orchard its reputation ; and last, but not least, 
the late John Alexander Dowie, the founder of 
Zion City. 

It will be seen, from the relation of these 
facts, that faith-healing is not the same as 
Christian Science, although in the popular 
mind these two are some- 
Faith Healing not times con f unded. In their 

ChrittiTn aS theoretical aspects they 

. " bear little resemblance to 

Science. 

each other. Christian 

Science rests upon the fundamental postulate of 

Mrs. Eddy that there is nothing real except 

the Divine Mind and its ideas. It is not the 

doctrine that the mind has a great power in 

dealing with the body. It is the doctrine that 

all sensation is in the mind and that all physical 

suffering is a dream of falsity. Says Mrs. 

Eddy. "No one would speak of a wagon- wheel 



SPIRITUAL FACTOR 6j 

as being fatigued, and yet the body, being mat- 
ter, is just as incapable of fatigue as a wagon 
wheel." Faith-healing is the substitution of 
faith and prayer for drugs. Christian Science 
is the virtual repudiation of matter. 

And at the opposite extreme of this doc- 
trine that faith has everything to do with heal- 
ing is the position of those who assert that faith 
has nothing to do with 

Ph^siT teal healin £> and a11 that man 

T. 1^ . . ' is and all that he believes, 

Determinism. 

can be explained upon the 
basis of cerebral conditions. That is the at- 
titude of physiological determinism. In his 
famous book, "The Physic Treatment of Ner- 
vous Orders/' Dr. Paul Dubois, one of the 
foremost writers upon this subject, emphatic- 
ally declares that a man's attitude toward life 
is all important to health. He declares that in 
the treatment of disease it is essential to dis- 
cover the moral quality in a patient and to find 
something that will raise him in his own eyes 
and will lead him to a greater confidence in 
himself. But the famous doctor having thus 
asserted the therapeutic value of the moral fac- 
tor, utterly fails to explain it in a satisfactory 
way. He would leave faith out of account. 



68 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

He would leave no place for God or for prayer. 
That there is a spiritual factor in healing (and 
that there is a therapeutic value in faith and 
prayer) we may confidently believe without 
subscribing to the exaggerations of these cults 
and without denying the operation of physical 
or psychological law. And what that factor is 
the following considerations to some extent will 
show. 

It is a miscomprehension of religious faith 
that leads a great many to ignore it as a heal- 
ing force. It is said that a small boy when 

asked by his Sunday 
The Misconcep- , < , 

r _ . , r school teacher to state 
tion of Faith. , . . , f . , 

what faith means, replied, 

"Faith is believing things which aren't true." 
That was his conception of it. And unfor- 
tunately this conception is shared by not a few 
of older years, both within and without the 
Church. Faith is not infrequently identified 
with credulity and superstition. Many seem 
to suppose that faith is believing something 
when there is no evidence upon which to base 
their belief, or that it is even believing some- 
thing against evidence. 

In reality faith is an attitude towards life. 



SPIRITUAL FACTOR 69 

We have come to recognize that much depends 
upon an attitude. Faith is an attitude toward 

life; it is confidence in the 
Faith Necessary , , , t . ,, £ 

T . r J fundamental Tightness of 

to Life. , . « r 

things. We must have 

faith in order to live at all. No man lives or 
can live who does not live by faith. In eating 
one performs an act of faith. There is faith 
in the food and faith in the person who pre- 
pared it. Every man who engages in a busi- 
ness enterprise does so by faith. If he had no 
faith he would not enter into business at all. 
There is faith in his fellow men, in his em- 
ployes, in his associates, in business principles 
and methods and in hundreds and thousands of 
people with whom he has to deal in a business 
way. 

As it bears upon the question of health and 
healing, faith is just confidence. It is con- 
fidence that God is on the side of health; that 
He is against sickness and 

Faith as suffering; that He is 

Confidence. . ' ,. r 

against abnormality of 

every kind ; and by the same token that He is 
against sin and crime. It is the confidence that 
the world is not a conspiracy against man, 
but in reality is a conspiracy in his behalf. Said 



JO THE RELATION OF HEALING 

a certain man the other day, a member of a 
Christian Church, "Why has all this trouble 
come upon me? Why is it that during these 
past years everything has been against me?" 
That is an attitude of unfaith; it is a lack of 
confidence ; and this man, by losing confidence, 
has in late years become a nervous wreck. Un- 
less something happens speedily to bring him 
into a new attitude toward life, toward the uni- 
versal order, and toward God, it is only a ques- 
tion of time when the grave will open to receive 
him. 

Turning to the Scriptures we find this atti- 
tude of confidence expressed in language that 
is beautiful and Divine. "The Lord of Hosts 
is with me, the God of Jacob is my refuge." 
"Fear not, only believe." "All things are pos- 
sible to him that believeth." "He healeth all 
my diseases, He redeemeth my life from de- 
struction; He satisfieth my mouth with good 
things so that my youth is renewed like the 
eagle's." Such is the faith that is expressed by 
the men who wrote the Bible. Many have tried 
hard in recent years to persuade themselves 
that this is all poetry, and that it represents the 
pious rhapsodizing of a few unpractical souls. 



SPIRITUAL FACTOR 7 1 

But scientific research is at last bringing us to 
realize that it signifies rather an attitude to- 
ward life, without which it is not possible for 
any man to come into true physical or moral 
self-hood. 

If it is true, as psychology avers, that 
every mental state tends to create a correspond- 
ing nervous and physical state ; if it is true that 

there is "-No psychosis 
Faith as a Mental ... , . „ , , 

^n. without neurosis, what 
State must Effect , ' , 

.1 -D j«i T t must be the ultimate ef- 

the Bodily Life. . . 

feet of this high mood of 

thought and confidence upon a man's physical 
nature, upon his mental efficiency, upon his 
personal power, upon his well-being in every 
conceivable way? "If, when one arises in the 
morning he can say with the Psalmist, fear not, 
only believe;* if, with this confidence ringing 
in every chamber of his mind and his soul, he 
can go to his work ; if when he relaxes his tired 
muscles at night and composes his mind for 
sleep, this confidence is still there yielding its 
influence through the unconscious hours, is it 
not evident that it must be in some true sense 
a fortification against weakness and a safe- 



*"The Gospel of Good Health," by C. R. Brown, 



>J2 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

guard against the encroachments of disease?" 
The truth is, that most of us exhibit surprising- 
ly little intelligence at this point. We seek to 
live upon a minimum of faith. Personally it 
has required ten years and the persuasions of 
a half dozen physicians to induce me to drink 
as much water as a healthy person ought to 
drink. Only in recent months have I come to 
understand the value of water. The same is 
true with most of us in regard to faith. In 
one way or another we have shut ourselves off 
from faith. We have not realized that a man 
lives in proportion as he believes. 

Another aspect of religious faith that needs 

to be emphasized because it makes for health 

as well as character, is the mood of expectation, 

"According to thy faith 

^ . be it unto thee." We are 

Expectation. , „ „ 

beginning to realize that 

it is more true than is commonly understood 
that, according to our expectations, it is being 
done unto us. Man everywhere tends to be- 
come both in body and in character what he 
expects to become. "The man who goes 
through life expecting to catch every disease in 
existence, is rarely disappointed. The man who 



SPIRITUAL FACTOR 73 

lives in an attitude of fear, may not realize his 
worst fears, but he is certain to realize a good 
percentage of them. And it is true on the other? 
hand, that the, quiet, serene confidence of the 
educated doctor, of the trained nurse, of the 
well-poised man in any station in life, is like an 
armor plate against the encroachments of dis- 
ease."* 

There are those in our midst today, and 
the number is increasing, who have ceased to 
talk about their ills, who have ceased to think 
about them, who have ceased to pity them- 
selves; who have assumed an attitude of ex- 
pectation and who are finding that, according to 
their expectations, it is being done unto them. It 
is not meant of course that simply by a mental 
state one becomes invincible. We are not om- 
nipotent; our bodies at the best are mortal. It 
is evidently the plan of God that in due time 
these bodies shall decay and death shall ensue. 
But it is evident that by cultivating a mood of 
expectancy, by believing in the best and hoping 
for the best and working for the best, we can 
set in motion a great health-preserving force 
that w T ill prove a fortification against prema- 
ture decay. 



*C. R. Brown. 



74 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

We come to the crucial consideration in re- 
gard to this whole mat- 
Trust in God . T , - n i 

„ ter. trust in God as a 

as an Ever- f i t 

-> ^ tt i helper who is ever acces- 

Present Helper. r 

sible to us. Said Mrs. 

Browning — 

"Oh the little bird sang East, 

And the little bird sang West, 
And I smiled to think God's greatness 
Flowed around our incompleteness, 

Round our restlessness, His rest." 

Jesus was ever saying to the people of His 
time, "Have faith in God." The Psychologist 
tells us today that every healing attributed to 
faith in God can be explained upon the basis of 
psychological law. But is it not evident that 
the question still remains, whence come these 
laws? What is the source of their power? 
Says Mr. Breirle,* "The Soul of God is pour- 
ing itself into the world through the thoughts 
of man. Every one who stops to think must 
realize that our finite minds are in touch with 
an Infinite Mind, and that we derive our men- 
tal powers from that Infinite Mind. These 
finite minds are like the leaves of the same tree, 
and if we understood it, we are in communica- 
tion with God all the while. 



* "Religion and Experience," by M. J. Breirle. 



SPIRITUAL FACTOR 75 

"Oh where is the sea? cried the fish. 
Oh where is the air? cried the bird. 
So man cries, 'Where is God?' " 

So man cries, "Where is God?" He does 
not realize that he lives, and moves, and has his 
being in God. The best minds have ceased 
to think of God merely as a gigantic man. He 
is best thought of as a spirit of life permeat- 
ing all things with His presence, and pouring 
His soul into the world through the thoughts of 
men. Our mental powers are but an index 
which points to the vaster powers of the In- 
finite Mind. What, then, is more rational or 
more sensible than for a man to look up with 
all the powers of his rational nature and say, 
"Oh God, lend me thy help, thou gracious fa- 
ther and friend !" 

One of the most significant statements 
about prayer that has been made in many a 
year has not come from a religious teacher 

but from a doctor. Said 

A Significant r>> tt 1 ? 

& Dr. Hyslop, a famous 

Statement. 

English medical specialist, 

at a recent medical conference in the city of 
London. "Speaking as an alienist, as one who 
has spent his whole life in dealing with the 
troubles of mind, if I were asked to state the 



j6 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

greatest hygienic measure for sleeplessness and 
mental depression and all of the miserable 
phases of a disturbed mind, I would undoubt- 
edly say that the greatest preventive is the sim- 
ple habit of prayer." What a significant utter- 
ance, coming as it does from a physician and a 
scientist, who has spent his life in dealing with 
the mentally troubled and disordered! 

I believe that we are justified in going far- 
ther and in making the claim that in true faith 
and prayer there is a therapeutic force that is 

greater than mankind has 
The Therapeutic , < TT 

Tr - r -^ • , ever understood. How 

Value of Faith t . , , 

and Prayer. ^ reat cannot be said > be " 

cause it has never yet been 

fully tried. For thousands of years men have 

been treating themselves as bodies, and not as 

souls. We are just beginning to realize that 

man is a soul, and it remains for humanity to 

discover what can be achieved by opening the 

soul to its utmost towards God. 

It is not true as some extremists urge, that 

in order to have faith in God medical treatment 

must be despised. We 
Absurdity of 1 n 1 . , 1 ^ ^ 

Extreme Views. Can hardl ^ thmk that God 

is as narrow as many 

would have us believe. It is hardly likely that 
God is going to withhold his spiritual gifts 



SPIRITUAL FACTOR JJ 

because you and I are using some other means 
which He himself created for the good of man- 
kind. We all believe in fresh air, sunshine and 
water as therapeutic forces. Said an old man 
of eighty, a little while ago — an old man who 
is doing a young man's work — , "Do you want 
to know the prayer of the right lung? It is 
three times up, and three times down and three 
times out, with the right arm many times a 
day. Do you want to know the prayer of the 
left lung ? It is three times up, and three times 
down and three times out with the left arm." 
What he meant was merely this; that the 
proper breathing of God's fresh air is a won- 
derful therapeutic force. Does anyone think 
it is a lack of faith in God to use the air ? Why 
should he think it is a lack of faith in God to 
use any means which He has placed in our 
hands? It is true that there is no evidence 
that Jesus ever used drugs. "There is no evi- 
dence that He ever used an elevator or a street 
car, but one would be foolish to climb to the 
top of every building in a modern city, or do 
all his business on foot, because Jesus never 
used an elevator or a street car. Nor does it 
mean that we must take leave of our common 
sense in order to have faith in God. It is not 



yS THE RELATION OF HEALING 

necessary to indulge in pretense and make-be- 
lieve, or to go around saying, "There is no sick- 
ness, there is no disease, there is no poverty, 
there is no death. God is good, and God is all, 
everything is lovely and we are lovely too.''* 
We hear it said on every side in the name of 
Christ and in the name of his teaching that 
suffering is a dream of falsity, and yet our New 
Testament tells us that 
Reality of through suffering Jesus 

Suffering Christ learned obedience. 

^NeT ed by B tdlS US t0 ° that Wi ° ked 

rp men took him, drove nails 

into his hands and feet, 

pierced his side and that he cried out in agony, 

"My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken 

me?" And this same Christ once told the 

story of a certain man who was beset by thieves 

and was bruised and beaten and left by the 

wayside to die. In the face of all this how can 

it be asserted that suffering is a dream and 

nothing more? Is it not evident that to hold 

this extreme position means nothing less than 

the surrender of common sense. Is not this 

claim a mere self-deception that is likely to lead 

people to a self-satisfied and self-complacent 

and a morally indifferent attitude towards the 

*C. R. Brown. 



SPIRITUAL FACTOR 79 

hard facts of life? Is it not a better faith to 
face hard problems with open-eyed eagerness 
and a receptivity that ignores nothing, that de- 
nies nothing, using every means of relief that 
God has placed within our reach? Is it not 
better to accept the fresh air, the sunshine, the 
w T ater and also the physician's skill? To these 
we should add right thoughts, right mental at- 
titudes, high expectations, firm resolution, and 
faith in God. Let us learn to think of our- 
selves not as primarily a body, but as a soul. 
Such an attitude towards life will help to in- 
crease both physical and moral health, in some 
of us thirty, in some sixty, and in some a hun- 
dred fold. 



And ah, for a man to arise in me, 
That the man I am may cease to be! 

Tennyson. 

Uncompromising deniers of facts, rebels against 
evidence, may ridicule the idea, but to me it is cer- 
tain that the soul exists and that it is endowed with 
faculties as yet unknown. 

Camille Flammarion. 



V 
HUMAN RESERVE-ENERGIES 



"The one duty of life is to lessen every vice and 
to enlarge every virtue." 

David Swing. 

"Now are we children of God, and it is not yet 
made manifest what we shall be." 

St. John. 

"Till we all come unto the perfect man." 

St. Paul. 



CHAPTER V. 



HUMAN RESERVE ENERGIES. 

In exceedingly various and striking ways 
it is being impressed upon us all the while that 
nautre is full of immense, undiscovered and un- 
utilized energies. They 
Unused Energies . MJ , 

. ^ T fa are running wild and use- 

in Nature. , t - „ 

less m the vast spheres all 

about us, and need only to be understood and 
harnessed in order to become the faithful ser- 
vants of man and the ministers of far-reach- 
ing good. The reason why no scholar or his- 
torian can forcast the progress of the future 
is that none can tell at what moment some 
great force will be discovered capable of send- 
ing humanity forward with leaps and bounds 
hitherto unparalleled. 

It is just as true in the realm of mind as 
in that of physical nature that there are great 
undiscovered and unused powers. "Every 
man/' says Newell Dwight Hillis,* "is not 



*"A Man's Value to Society," by Newell Dwight 
HiUis. 



84 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

simply two men, but a score of men. All the 

climatic disturbances in 
Unused Energies n ^ dist a _ 

in Mind. . u u ± a 

tures through heat and 

cold, wet and dry, summer and winter do not 
answer in number and variety to the moods in 
man's brain. Not the all-producing summer 
is so rich in bounty as the mind is rich in 
thought when working its regnant and crea- 
tive moods. Vast are the buildings man's hands 
have reared; sweet are the songs man's mind 
hath sung; lovely the faces man's genius hath 
created; but the silent songs the souls hears, 
the invisible pictures the mind sees, the secret 
buildings the imagination rears, these are a 
thousand fold more beautiful than any as yet 
embodied in this material world." Thus the 
eloquent preacher in language almost divine 
voices a fact which men at large have scarcely 
begun to recognize, namely, the fact that the 
mind is richly and wonderfully stored with 
energies which as yet we have not learned to 
draw upon, but which are put there for us to 
discover, to understand and to use. In the 
words of Lowell: 



RESERVE ENERGIES 85 

"Manhood hath a wider span and larger 
Principle of life than man. 
For soul inherits all that soul would dare." 

It is unqestionably true, as Prof. William 
James declares, that few men live at their max- 
imum of energy. A few exceptional persons 
here and there have found 

1V ,f . e ° W the secret of drawing" upon 

our Maximum. , . « . 

their reserves and putting 

to use the power which so often lies dormant 
in others. The differences in efficiency between 
different individuals is not wholly, by any 
means, a difference in their endowment of 
power. It is often quite as much a difference 
in their ability to use their power. The truth 
is that the vast majority of people have habit- 
uated themselves to live below their maximum 
and to use only a small part of the powers 
which they actually possess. We sometimes 
hear men speak of being only half awake, 
meaning thereby that they are conscious of 
energies slumbering in them which are not 
drawn upon or brought into use. In the words 
of the writer who has just been quoted,* "Some 
sort of a cloud seems to rest upon them and 
they are kept below their highest notch of clear- 

*"The Energies of Men," by William James. 



86 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

ness in discernment, sureness in reasoning, or 
firmness in deciding. Compared with what 
they ought to be they are only half awake. It 
is worthy of consideration whether many do 
not go through life only half awake. There is 
reason to think that even in what seems to be 
our brightest moments there are vast reserves 
of power in the mind of which the average 
person is not conscious, but which under proper 
conditions can be drawn upon in the interest 
of physical health and mental adequacy, and an 
enlarged and well grounded efficiency for all 
of life's problems and tasks." 

There is need at this point to consider the 
power of abnormal habit to lock up the ener- 
gies and to shut us off, as it were, from our 

proper and rightful source 
Power of Ab- £ , a t- r u 

, XT , . of supply. An English 

normal Habit. \L J , 8 

army officer somewhere re- 
lates an impressive story of a soldier who was 
drowned while bathing in a pond by getting 
entangled in the grass. * Warned by his cries 
the officer hastened to the spot and found the 
drowning man in his last struggles attempting 
to extricate himself from the meshes of the 



*"The Religion of the Threshold," by Donald Sage 
Mackay. 



RESERVE ENERGIES 87 

rope like grass which encircled the trunk of his 
body and was coiled all about his limbs. When 
the body was recovered the face was found to 
be distorted, the teeth clinched and the muscles 
stiff and rigid, while the long trailing grass 
encircled them all about. It is a terrible but 
impressive illustration of the power of abnor- 
mal habit to limit and nullify life's best powers. 
It will ramify itself into every activity of the 
soul. It will coil around the will and strangle 
it. It will coil about the conscience and benumb 
it. It will take one and another of life's powers 
and lock them up and shut us off from the use 
of them until it becomes a monstrous tyrant. 
At the outset, a habit is determined largely by 
a tendency, an inclination, an emotion or a feel- 
ing. We do certain things because we like to 
do them, and the action is repeated until it be- 
comes a habit. If the action is normal and 
wholesome the consequent habit is wholesome, 
tending to enlarge and reinforce; but if the 
action is abnormal and unwholesome the con- 
sequent habit is unwholesome and it tends to 
fetter, to limit and to nullify life's best powers. 
The habit most to be dreaded, because the 
one generally least suspected, is what Prof. 
James calls the habit of "inferiority to our full 



88 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

self." Either through defect of training or 

through careless neglect upon our own part, 

the average man is content 

_ r . . to live far below his max- 

Inferionty. ■ , 

lmum of power, in a phy- 
sical, an intellectual and a moral sense. This 
habit of inferiority to his full self grows upon 
him; he is shut up more and more to his self- 
imposed limitation. In certain persons the 
habit of living below their possibilities is so 
extreme that it issues in chronic invalidism of 
various kinds. Certain types of neurasthenic 
and psychasthentic conditions, especially when 
life seems to be a veritable network of impos- 
sibilities, are simply the outcome of the habit of 
inferiority carried to extremes. "One of the 
peculiarities of the nervous system," says Dr. 
Coriat,* "is that it is plastic in nature. The 
substance of the nervous system is best thought 
of as living matter. It stores up impressions in 
the same way as the retina of the eye stores 
up colors and reproduces them as after- 
images." Thus it becomes evident that the 
habit of living below one's best self has a phy- 
sical, as well as a moral side, which, carried to 



♦"Psychic and Motor Re-Education," by Dr. Isador 
H. Coriat. 



RESERVE ENERGIES 89 

extremes, may easily become a chronic nervous 

malady. 

The question therefore of how to draw 

upon the unused energies and thereby reach a 

higher level of power is of great practical 

moment. That such a thing 
Drawing upon ^ iMe human 

the Unused . . J 

_ . nence in every generation 

Energies. J s 

most clearly and undeni- 
ably shows. In the vast majority of instances, 
perhaps, the releasing influence has been that 
of religious ideas and excitements. An ex- 
treme case is that of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 
one of the most gifted men of his day or of any 
day. Coleridge at one period of his life was the 
hapless victim of the laundanum habit, con- 
suming as much as three quarts of the drug per 
week. He relates that once, in the wretched 
space of twenty-four hours, he consumed a full 
quart of the terrible poison. Writing to a friend 
he said, — "For ten years the anguish of my 
spirit has been inexpressible, I have prayed 
for deliverance with drops of agony on my 
brow, trembling not only before the justice of 
my God, but even before the mercy of my Re- 
deemer. You bid me rouse myself. Better go 
and bid a man who is paralized in both arms 



90 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

to rub them together and it will cure him. You 
have no conception of the dreadful hell of my 
mind and conscience and body." And yet in 
time he did recover. The energies which had 
been locked up by his terrible habit were un- 
loosed and he was able to reach, and to main- 
tain, a new level. And as futile as his prayers 
seemed to have been at first, it was manifestly 
from this source that the needed stimulus 
eventually came. It was the mercy of God 
that saved him, because it was his faith in God 
that released his powers and enabled him to 
stand free in the radiance of a new and won- 
drous liberty. 

Then sometimes it is the unusual idea of some 

unlooked-for duty or necessity that supplies the 

needed stimulus and enables the habit-bound 

life to break loose from its 

_ self-imposed fetters and to 

Duty. . ; 

rise. A certain woman, a 

chronic invalid of a neurasthsntic type, who 
for years had been accustomed to experience 
intense fatigue and even distress from the 
slightest functional exercise, was suddenly con- 
fronted with the responsibility of assuming the 
burden of the household and providing for a 
family of several children through the sudden 



RESERVE ENERGIES 9 1 

death of her husband and the wreck of his for- 
tune. It seemed at first like an impossible task. 
It so happened that she possessed in her pas- 
tor a counsellor who was competent to advise 
her in this time of need, and almost in despair 
she turned to him for help. He said to her, 
"It is evidently the will of God that you should 
bear this burden. You should therefore take 
it up the best you can and trust in Him for the 
needed strength/' The advice had its effect, 
and from that hour she bravely faced her duty, 
and in some way was given the needed strength. 
To many who had known of her weakness the 
transformation seemed like a miracle. It is 
evident that at least one secret of the effect was 
found in the sense of duty which afforded a 
stimulus for the will that enabled her to over- 
come the "habit neurosis" by bringing into 
play the unused powers. 

Equally suggestive in this connection as 
showing the possibilities of our nature when 
put to the test, is the case of a young French 
girl, reported by a distinguished Frenchman to 
the French Academy as a conspicuous example 
of courage and virtue.* She was the eldest of 
six children, with an insane mother, and a fa- 



*Cited by Prof. James. 



92 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

ther who was chronically ill and dependent. 
With no money, except her own earnings at a 
factory, and with no assistance except the force 
of her own valiant will, she successfully main- 
tained a family of eight, directed the household 
and provided for the moral as well as the ma- 
terial welfare of all. The life of man, espe- 
cially in the more humble spheres, abounds 
with incidents of this kind. Under the pres- 
sure of some unlooked-for duty or emergency 
many have risen to a level of energy which 
under ordinary conditions seemed to be beyond 
their reach. The strain for a time is often in- 
tense ; there is a terrible sense of being driven ; 
but after a while this passes and the new bur- 
dens are carried with comparative ease. Such 
is the outcome because of a new reservoir of 
revulsive action which opens a mental and 
spiritual energy. 

The real force to unlock the higher energies 
is man's own will. The difficulty is to use it — 

to make the effort, as 
The Place of p rof j ameg declares ^ 

which the word volition 
implies. We cannot depend upon special ex- 
citements. "Inspiration," says Richard Ca- 
bot,* "is what we need in emergencies, but not 



* "Creative Assertion," Richard Cabot. 



RESERVE ENERGIES 93 

as a steady diet. To be continually roused and 
roused again, to have our emotions stirred, and 
our impulses excited again and again at short 
intervals would not be conducive to a healthy 
life. If the best in us is ever realized it must 
come, not through some special stimulus, but 
•uoipajip-jps lUBisuoo puB jnpsodind qSnojip 
Even when some special excitement is supplied 
it is evident that the action of the will is the 
real factor that determines the result which so 
often follows. The truth that we have need 
to learn is that we are not dependent upon oc- 
casional influences and chance excitements. It 
is possible for the mind to pour a constant suc- 
cession of inspiring ideals into the deeper and 
more fixed self-hood. Each verbal repetition 
makes it more graphic. Each thought creates 
more of its kind, and, like designs on slides be- 
fore a calcium light, are enlarged and intensi- 
fied." 

It is at this point that the message of re- 
ligion meets us. The greatest of all forces to 
unlock the hidden energies are the truths of the 
Christian religion when steadily assimilated by 
the mind. It is possible for any man in the grip 
of the habit of inferiority to find in the mes- 



94 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

sage of Jesus a secret that will release his 
higher powers and enable him to rise to his ut- 
most plane, not perhaps in 
Christian Mes- an instant> but in due 

sage as a t j me ^ ^ g we jj expect to 

Stimulant for . 1 

th w*n grow a tree in an hour as 

to expect the habits of a 
lifetime to be counteracted while you wait. 
But systematic concentration upon the right- 
ideals will gradually open new vistas of 
brightness, and life will be renewed, and 
transformed, and multiplied, until simply 
to live will become an increasing joy. 



VI 
THE SUB-CONSCIOUS MIND 



Every man has in himself a continent of undis- 
covered character. Sir J. Stephens. 

For as he thinketh within himself so is he. 

Proverbs. 

For the good that I would do, I do not; but the 
evil which I would not, that I do. 

Paul. 



CHAPTER VI. 



THE SUB-CONSCIOUS MIND. 

As one stands upon the bank of a lake and 

looks upon its surface he sees but a small and 

insignificant portion of it. Beyond and below 

what he sees is perhaps nine- 

sTnTfief Term ty " nine hundredths that he 
does not see. It would 

seem that in like manner there is in each one 
of us a kind of submerged mentality which con- 
tains layer upon layer and deep upon deep. As 
occasion offers, the mind is able to plunge into 
this hidden storehouse and to bring many- 
things to the surface. But there is a reason to 
believe that these are only a mere fraction of 
what lies there. 

For many years this submerged and un- 
conscious mentality has been dimly recognized. 
Under certain conditions the mind has seemed 
to give evidence of a mentality that is distinct 



98 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

from our conscious processes. It has seemed 
to give evidence of a memory that is far su- 
perior to the conscious 
Subconscious memory) as if in some 

Activity Dimly L - . £ 

~ . , out-of-the-way corner of 

Recognized. . J 

the brain there lay a store- 
house which in some mysterious manner is now 
and then unlocked. As far back as eighteen 
hundred and sixteen Sir John Herschel, in 
view of certain peculiarities of mind, raised the 
query whether there is not another thought or 
intelligence working within our own organiza- 
tion, and yet distinct from our own personality. 
Since that time the studies and experiments of 
a brilliant group of investigators have thrown 
much light upon the whole subject, and not 
a few have come to believe that beneath and 
beyond our conscious mental activity there is at 
work a kind of mentality that it is of the ut- 
most consequence to recognize. And they have 
come to believe that the subconscious mind is 
closely related to character, to health, and to 
personal well-being in many ways. They have 
also come to believe that this subconsciousness 
is amenable to education ; that it can be reached 
by means of suggestion, and that thereby the 
whole life, the inner as well as the outer life, 
stands to gain. 



THE SUB-CONSCIOUS MIND 99 

The facts of human nature upon which the 
theory of the subconscious mind is based are 
both curious and varied. We have all had the 
experience of attempting 
Basis of the tQ recall a f orgotten wor d 

Theory. Qr name whjle cQn _ 

sciously searching and thinking it persistently 
and obstinately eludes us ; but, when the search 
is given up and the mind is directed into other 
channels, the missing word somehow springs 
into consciousness. While preaching I once 
had this curious experience. During the in- 
troductory portion of the sermon and while 
developing the thesis, I tried to recall a word 
which was very important to the thought that 
I was trying to express. But I could not recall 
it ; and after trying repeatedly I had to give it 
up and explain to the congregation that I could 
not recall the word that I desired. Toward the 
close of the sermon, while elucidating another 
thought, the forgotten word suddenly pre- 
sented itself to the mind with such force that it 
seemed almost as if some voice had spoken it. 
On another occasion I had been conversing 
during the evening with some friends and had 
tried to recall the name of a certain book, it 
was Holmes' Elsie Venner, but was not able to 



100 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

do it. Sometime during the following night I 
awoke from sleep with a start, and as I did 
so the one thing that was distinct to the mind 
was the name of the book, Elsie Venner, which 
I had vainly tried to recall earlier in the eve- 
ning. Dr. W. B. Carpenter* records an expe- 
rience of a certain man, a bank cashier, who 
lost the key of the safe. In the morning the 
key could not be found, and all the business of 
the bank came to a standstill He knew that 
on the evening before he had put it somewhere 
for safety, but try as he would he could not 
think where. A sharp detective was sum- 
moned, and, after learning all the circumstances 
he advised the man to return home and to busy 
himself with something that would occupy 
his mind and divert his attention from the mis- 
hap. He did so, and, while thinking wholly 
upon other matters, it came to him where he 
had put the key, and then all was well. Prof. 
James* relates the case of a young woman who 
had been writing automatically but was later 
sitting with the pencil in her hand trying to re- 
call, at his request, the name of a certain person 
whom she had once met. But she could re- 



* "Anchors of the Soul," by Brooke Herford. 
♦"Principles of Psychology," by Prof. James. 



THE SUB-CONSCIOUS MIND IOI 

member only the first syllable. While strug- 
gling to recall the remainder of the name, her 
hand, without her knowledge and without the 
objective mind taking note of it, wrote out the 
other two syllables. 

Even more suggestive is a series of 
incidents related by such eminent author- 
ities as Prof. James, Fredrick Meyers, Dr. 
Prince and Dr. Boris 

The Subconscious Sidis > which seem to show 
Mind may As- that at times, and under 

sume Control. certain conditions, the sub- 

conscious mind may rise 
to the surface and temporarily, or even perma- 
nently, assume control. Typical of these cases 
is that of a young woman named Reynolds. 
The incident occurred during the early part of 
the nineteenth century. One morning the young 
girl was found in a deep sleep from which it 
was impossible to awaken her. Some twenty 
hours later she awoke almost as a new born 
babe. Memory had vanished, and with it all 
knowledge acquired by experience and educa- 
tion. Parents, brothers, sisters and friends 
were unrecognized. It was observed also that 
she had undergone a marked change of temper. 
Formerly she had been melancholy, dull and 



102 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

taciturn; but now she was cheerful, alert and 
social. And thus she continued for the space of 
five weeks, when another sleep occurred and 
she awoke as her former self, without any 
memory of the events of the intervening period. 
A few weeks more and she relapsed into her 
former condition. Thus for the space of fifteen 
years she alternated between these two states, 
and then for twenty-five years her secondary 
self assumed control and continued to the day 
of her death. 

It is upon a great array of facts, such as 
these, that the theory of the subconscious mind 
is based. Reasoning from this data and taking 
account of the whole phe- 
James and nomena of dreams, visions, 

Meyers' Defini- , . u , , 

. J _ _ , trances, ni^ht mare and 

tion of Sub-con- , ,r , , 

,... , somnambulism, and tak- 

scious Mind. 

mg account also of the 
phenomena of hypnotism, Prof. James defines 
the subconscious mind as a split-off, limited 
and buried, but a fully active self. Fredrick 
Meyers, who, because of his contribution to the 
understanding of this subject, has placed the 
whole world under obligation, defines the sub- 
conscious mind as the mentality that operates 
beneath the threshold of normal consciousness. 



THE SUB-CONSCIOUS MIND IO3 

He declares that it includes the thoughts, sen- 
sations, and emotions which may be strong, 
definite and independent, but which seldom 
merge into that objective stream of conscious- 
ness with which we are wont to identify our- 
selves. 

And little perhaps as we suspect it the aver- 
age person is influenced 
Influence of the faf more powerfully by 

Subconscious. «. « ■ ■ , 

his subconscious mind 

than by his conscious mental proscesses. 

What is the relation of this subconscious men- 
tality to character? This question opens up a 
great field for inquiry. In the light of modern 
psychological research a new and deeper mean- 
ing must be attributed to the old Scripture af- 
firmation that, "as a man thinketh in his heart 
so is he."* 

There is reason to suspect that the impulse 
to many a criminal act, and to many an act of 
shame and wrong is directly traceable to the 
influence of the subconscious mind. Many a 
man who fails in his integrity and honor is 
quite as much surprised at his downfall as are 
those who knew him. Why did he do it ? For 
the life of him he cannot comprehend why he 



*Proverbs 23:7. 



104 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

did it. He did it apparently without deliberate 
intention, acting wholly contrary to his con- 
scious desire and purpose. 
Relation to It seems hardly tQQ sweep „ 

Character. . , , « , , u 

mg to assert that there are 

very few who have not at some time committed 
an act which in their better moments filled them 
with shame and wonderment. In great self-re- 
proach at some act of folly, many a man has 
cried out, "What could I have been thinking 
of? What demon possessed me to do such a 
thing?" The answer is, "As a man thinketh in 
his heart so is he. As the subconscious mind is 
so the outer life tends to become." 

And what is the relation of this unconscious 
mentality to health and happiness? The ques- 
tion opens up another great field for inquiry. 
The most eminent inves- 
Relation to tigators in the subcon- 

Healthand gdous sphere ^ men Hke 

Burnheim, Forel, DuBois 
and Bramwell, bear convincing testimony to 
the power of the subconscious mind to produce 
important changes in the physical functions. 
Its action in this respect is perhaps far more 
profound and universal than that of the con- 
scious mental processes. An idea, an impres- 



THE SUB-CONSCIOUS MIND IO5 

sion, an attitude, while wholly internal and un- 
conscious, is capable of effecting, through the 
nervous system, the whole physical organism. 
The state of health possessed by each individual 
is probably more closely related than is readily 
understood to his characteristic subconscious 
processes. Indeed, it seems likely that even 
one's appearance and lineament are closely re- 
lated to this subconscious mentality. Passing 
along the crowded street one beholds many dif- 
ferent types of expression. One face bespeaks 
fear, another cunning, another hatred, another 
sweetness and gentleness. Only a few altera- 
tions and one face becomes fox-like, another 
wolfish, another like the lion or the ape. Hered- 
ity has, no doubt had something to do in 
bringing this about, but more potent still is the 
activity of the subconscious mind. Says Olson,* 
"If one should grow up from infancy cheer- 
ful, and full of hope and trust for the future, 
think you that he would develop a countenance 
that bespeaks fear, or anger, or distrust, or 
hatred ? Such a thing would be contrary to 
nature." 

It becomes obvious, therefore, that one of 
our greatest problems is the reclamation of this 



*"Mind Power and Privileges," Olson. 



I06 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

inner hidden realm. Can the subconscious mind 
be re-educated and re-made? As it exists in 
each individual today it is controlled largely 

by two different factors. 
Problem Q ne of these is a residium 

Presented. r . ,. w u u 

of animalism which has 

come down from the by-gone ages when man 
was little more than an animal struggling to- 
ward humanity. A good deal of the animal in- 
stinct of that far-off time has been passed on to 
those who live today. Not a little of what we 
call human nature is only a thin veneer that 
covers up a pure animal within. And this in 
part explains the emergence of many a dark 
impulse that comes suddenly to men tending to 
degrade them and to drag them into criminal- 
ity and shame. 

And another factor of the subconscious 
mind is a kind of residium of past states en- 
gendered by our conscious mental processes. 

-. , «„ . , Every day during our past 

Conscious Think- ,. ' , f , 

■c, life we have had many 
ing a Factor. . . J 

hours of conscious think- 
ing. Thoughts of every conceivable sort have 
been permitted to come and go. Mental pic- 
tures of many kinds have been drawn and the 
mind has been permitted to dwell upon them. 



THE SUB-CONSCIOUS MIND IO7 

When they were dismissed they were supposed 
to vanish; but in reality no mental picture or 
thought formation has ever really vanished. 
An impression was left on the delicate fiber of 
the life within, like the picture on a photog- 
rapher's plate. It is no reflection upon the 
average man to say that he is utterly reckless 
and leaves himself wholly unguarded at this 
point. The mental creations that he permits 
himself are many times of such a character 
that he would upon no account permit others to 
view them; and when they are dismissed he 
supposes that to be the end of them. But it is 
not; the impression is left. Our subconscious 
mind, as we find it today, is a kind of residium 
of these past mental states and creations. 

The subjective mind, declares Hudson,* re- 
ceives its character and education largely from 
the objective mind; and in this statement he is 
in agreement with the most of the writers in 
this field, whose opinion is of weight. If this 
is true, it follows that the subconscious can be 
reclaimed ; it can be re-educated and made the 
agent of truth, and beauty, and health, and 
happiness. Says one writer,* "If the supernal 
aim is receptivity to the Universal spirit of 



*"Law of Psychic Phenomena," Hudson. 
♦"Studies in the Thought World/' Henry Wood. 



108 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

Wholeness, it has a positive transforming in- 
fluence. The intellect, will and memory, and 
even the physical organism, will gradually ar- 
ticulate the pent-up forces of the inner realm, 
and thus the word is made flesh by coming into 
ultimation and visibility." 



VII 
THE LAW OF SUGGESTION 



The soul is form and doth the body make. 

Edmond Spencer. 

Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, for the 
merchandise of it is better than silver, and the gain 
of it than pure gold. 

Book of Proverbs. 



CHAPTER VII. 



THE L>AW OF SUGGESTION. 

It has not been until within very recent 
years that we have heard much about sugges- 
tion. And yet without doubt it represents a 

great law of mind which 
Suggestion Used plays a most active and 

Among the important part in human 

life. It is a law that has 
always been operative. It is as old as human 
nature. In the early dawn of History we find 
the Egyptians and their contemporaries mak- 
ing use of suggestion in various ways. From 
inscriptions now in existence it has been ascer- 
tained that at least five hundred years before 
the Christian era suggestion was freely used in 
connection with the rites of Aesculapius and 
other heathen cults; and many cures, which at 
the time were thought to be miraculous, were 
thereby wrought. The patient was first re- 
quired to cleanse himself with water from a 



112 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

sacred well and to bring a sacrifice, and then 
curious ceremonies of a religious kind were 
formed by the officiating priest. The patient 
probably by the use of hypnotic suggestion was 
caused to fall into a deep sleep, during which 
the God was supposed to appear and to min- 
ister to the patient's ailment. By means of this 
treatment, that amounted simply to suggestion, 
great hosts of sufferers, in that far-off time, 
were relieved; and all through the centuries 
suggestion in one form or another has been 
used. As a result of the scientific investigations 
of recent years, suggestion, as a therapeutic 
force or device, has become better understood 
and is more rationally and effectively used. 

No matter where we go or what our sur- 
roundings may be, the influence of suggestion 

cannot be escaped. We 
Universality of never knQW what day or 

uggestive n- j iQur may ^ r ' m g a sugges- 

tion that will modify and 
even change the entire course of life. About a 
score of years ago, having just returned from 
my first year at college to my native place, I 
passed one day by the home of the village min- 
ister, who came forth with greetings, at the 
same time stating that arrangements had been 



THE LAW OF SUGGESTION 113 

made for me to conduct a religious service on 
the coming Sabbath. In a quiet, earnest way, 
he suggested that it would be a good thing for 
me to present an application to the Church 
authorities for a license to preach. He said 
the Church needed young men who would pre- 
pare themselves for her ministry, and that in 
his judgment I ought to consider this need. 
He said that, in fact, he desired to present my 
application for the license to a Church meet- 
ing the very next week. Until this time I had 
never conducted a religious service, and had 
never even thought of choosing the ministry 
as a life work. My ambition had been to be a 
soldier, and certain friends were even then en- 
gaged to secure for me an appointment to the 
Government Military Academy at West Point. 
However, at the suggestion of this pastor, some 
new force awoke, a new ideal was released and 
the course of life from that hour was perma- 
nently changed. The incident is typical. The 
experience of the average person abounds with 
incidents illustrating the power of suggestion 
to awaken the hidden forces of the soul, to 
arouse new ambitions and to strongly deter- 
mine choices, so that the whole course of life 
becomes changed. 



114 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

The psychological principle upon which sug- 
gestion rests is usually spoken of as "dissocia- 
tion." One writer defines it as a mental re- 
action in which an idea 
Philosophy of usuaUy connected with 

**** " a perception becomes so in- 

tense and narrow, and the mind becomes so 
filled with one idea that this ideal loses its ordi- 
nary associations, breaks violently through the 
common restrictions and releases cerebral 
powers which have hitherto been dormant and 
inactive. For all practical purposes it will be 
sufficient to think of suggestion as the projec- 
tion of an idea into the mind in such a manner 
and with such intensity that it has power not 
only to influence the conscious mental processes 
but to reach down into the deeper mental 
strata and release the subconsious powers. 

That this power which is exerted through 
suggestion is clothed in more or less of mys- 
tery, is doubtless true. But this does not mean 
that there is anything about it that is morbid or 
unnatural. Says Prof. James, — * "It not in- 
frequently happens that our insight into causes 
fails, and we are able to note results only in 
general terms/' Suggestion represents a great 



*"The Energies of Men," by William James. 



THE LAW OF SUGGESTION 115 

law of mind, and, like every law of God's 
world, it is to be carefully and patiently studied 
and deliberately and unselfishly used. Just 
why it is that certain ideas projected into the 
mind awaken the sentiment of love, or the feel- 
ing of anger, or the sense of cupidity, who can 
say? And why it is that certain ideas awaken 
a sense of loyalty or courage, or arouse a capa- 
city for endurance, or suffering which, apart 
from those ideas, are never witnessed, who can 
say ? Where is the psychologist who can satis- 
factorily explain these phenomena ? One of the 
most impressive things of history and of life is 
the way certain ideas, like that of home, or 
church, or country, or liberty, or science or re- 
ligion, or truth, are able to grip the soul and to 
release energies in men which for months and 
years have neither been active nor given evi- 
dence even of existence. Ideas are keys which, 
under God, unlock the hidden energies. We 
know that this is so, but in the present stage of 
our knowledge, it cannot be said exactly why 
it is so. 

Nor can it be explained why the same ideas 
are not equally efficacious in unlocking the 
energies of all people. Why an idea that to 
one is all alive and charged with power to in- 



Il6 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

fluence and to energize his whole nature is to 
another dead and powerless, who can say? 
It no doubt depends more upon the person into 
whose mind it has been projected than it does 
upon the idea itself. But however this may be, 
the experience of man everywhere bears wit- 
ness to the fact that human nature is pro- 
foundly effected by ideas. They are like keys 
which unlock a hidden storehouse. "A concept 
that once grips the soul acts as a challenge to 
the will, and the result many times is a great 
enlargement of power/' The whole phenomena 
of conversion are an illustration of this truth. 
The Pauls, the Augustines, the Luthers, the 
Moodys and all the rest bear witness to the 
power of an idea dropped into the mind, to 
grip the soul, to challenge the will and to re- 
lease new life-giving power. 

It may therefore be said that, since sug- 
gestion is able thus to unlock hidden energies, 

it is manifestly a force to 
Gains from Use be studied and tQ be used 

of Suggestion. -pt, • * -j 

fefc> I he important considera- 

tion is whether we are prepared to take ad- 
vantage of this law and to use it for worthy 
and beneficent ends. The responsibility of those 
whose work it is to influence other and weaker 



THE LAW OF SUGGESTION 117 

souls, whether as parent, as teacher, as pastor, 
as physician, as nurse or as friend, is very 
great; and suggestion offers a method of un- 
measured value for the purpose of instilling 
influences and ideas of a nature calculated to 
invigorate, to energize, to reinforce, to upbuild, 
to vitalize and to make free. 

The anxious parent or teacher often wor- 
ries, grieves, fears, scolds and raves in efforts 
to control a fault or to effect a reform in the 
child, but without success. 
Value of Sugges- The trouMe j s that threats 

Trail^o? 1 and P unishments are ver y 

. _ r likely to awaken resent- 

the Young. J 

ment and to stir up oppo- 
sition so that the fault which it is desired to cor- 
rect is only aggravated. It is much better to 
drop suggestions into the mind as seed is 
dropped into the soil, and to leave it to the 
mind and soul to appropriate it and to be trans- 
formed by it. There is upon record the case of 
a boy who was afflicted with a mania for throw- 
ing stones.* He threw them at windows, car- 
riages, trains and people. And it was manifest- 
ly a hereditary trait. One of his parents when 



* "Hypnotism in Mental and Moral Culture," by 
Quackenbos 



Il8 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

of the same age had been characterized by the 
same trait. The boy had been coaxed, and 
bribed, and beaten, in order to correct his fault, 
but to no avail. Finally through the applica< 
tion of suggestive treatment the difficulty was 
easily solved. Many children are abnormally 
disobedient, troublesome and destructive. The 
ordinary methods of discipline do not seem to 
help them much. Harsh treatment awakens re- 
sentment and makes them all the worse. The 
possibilities of suggestion, in dealing with such 
natures, are now known to be very great. 

Because it unlocks the hidden storehouse of 
power, suggestion is also a therapeutic force. 
The powers of mind over body have been fully 

_„ . dealt with in a previous 

Therepeutic , , Tt * , « 

TT . rc , chapter. The point here 

Value of Sugges- , .'■■.« 

t j on to be noticed is that 

through suggestion the 
mind powers are released. Nervous troubles 
of many kinds, the insomnias, hysterical pains, 
phobias, hallucinations, manias, great and 
harmful exhaltations, and equally great and 
harmful depressions, intense irritability, pro- 
found weakness, morbid feelings, and perver- 
sions that are characteristic of nervous mala- 
dies are most readily and effectively treated in 



THE LAW OF SUGGESTION 119 

this way. Troubles of this kind are largely 
psychic and moral in character and hence must 
be treated in psychic and moral ways. In many 
forms of organic difficulty the value of sugges- 
tion as a subsidiary force is not to be despised. 
By some of the foremost physicians of our time 
suggestion is employed for checking pain, for 
soothing fears, for controlling coughs, for in- 
ducing sleep, and for numerous other purposes. 
In many of the most difficult and critical ill- 
nesses suggestion is used to inspire that con- 
fidence and faith which is the most powerful 
re-inforcement of the physician's skill. Even 
as an adjunct to surgery suggestion has a value 
that is certain to be more fully recognized. By 
means of it the patient's natural apprehensions 
are allayed, confidence is strengthened, ner- 
vous shock is averted, and surgical methods 
are robbed of many risks. 

It has been maintained by some writers that 
to be effective, hypnotism 

. yp gg must be employed and the 

tion. 1 

suggestion must be given 

while the patient is in the hypnotic state. But 

by the more recent writers this idea is no longer 

urged. It is no doubt true that hypnotism has, 

and will continue to have, a place and a use. 



120 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

But, contrary to what is often supposed, there 
is no curative or restorative value in hypnotism 
as such. The hypnotic state is simply a form 
of absent mindedness brought on by suggestion. 
In this absent minded condition the subcon- 
scious is dissociated from the conscious and 
thus becomes more easily reached. But the 
idea that suggestion, in order to be affective, 
must be given while the patient is in a hypnotic 
state is being emphasized less and less. „ Scien- 
tific men with whom the method of hypnotism 
once found favor have in many instances dis- 
continued it, and more and more its use is re- 
stricted to a smaller field. 

It has been discovered that the vast major- 
ity of persons are suggestable while in their 
waking state. The average person, while in 

. full possession of his fac- 

Suggestion in the 1x . , , 

Waking State. ulties and powers ' can be 

reached by suggestion. The 

essential conditions are that the patient should 
relax, putting his mind into a receptive frame 
devoid of resistance, and that the suggestion 
should be of such a character as will not of- 
fend the patient's mental and moral convic- 
tions. Reason is given us of God to guard the 
life from outside interference; and suggestion 



THE LAW OF SUGGESTION 121 

in order to be effective, must respect the in- 
dividual reason and moral sensibility and ac- 
cord with their demands. 

Another condition that is favorable for sug- 
gestion is the state of natural sleep. Children 
especially can be reached by suggestions of this 

kind, and ideas can be in- 
Suggestion in the -^ a e f 

State of Natural ,. & 

~. relieve weaknesses, and 

correct moral difficulties of 
many kinds. Take for example that great fear 
of childhood, the dark. Thousands of mature 
people can never forget the abject and paralyz- 
ing fear that, as children, they were accustomed 
to feel when left alone in the dark. Experi- 
ments already made are sufficient to warrant 
the statement that, ordinarily this difficulty can 
be overcome by the parent who will sit quietly 
by the sleeping child, and, with low strong and 
helpful assurance, impart the suggestions that 
the darkness is not to be feared; that there is 
nothing in it to harm ; that God has given it to 
us to insure rest, that we may grow strong for 
work and play. Children must learn that the 
darkness is a friend, and not a foe. 

And simple persuasion is a method of sug- 



122 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

gestion that needs to be taken into account. 

Dr. DuBois* declares that the best suggestive 

„ „ method is that of reason- 

The Method of TA _ . 

^ . ing or persuasion. It is 

Persuasion. 

what he calls the method 

of education. The patient is taught what he 
has, what he has not and what he thinks he 
has. He is told what he can do, what he can- 
not do, and what he thinks he cannot do. Com- 
ing thus to understanding his symptoms and 
condition and being led to a full belief in the 
possibilities of his belief, the patient advances 
easily and readily along the path of recovery. 



*"The Psychic Treatment of Nervous Disorders," 
Paul DuBois. 



VIII 
THE LAW OF AUTO-SUGGESTION 



My son, in thy sickness be not negligent; 
But pray unto the Lord and He shall heal thee. 
Put away wrong doing, and order thy hands aright. 
And cleanse thy heart from all manner of sin. 

Sirach. 

Why art thou cast down, O my soul? 
And why art thou disquieted within me? 
Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise Him 
For the help of His countenance. 

Psalms. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



THE LAW OF AUTO-SUGGESTION. 

Auto-suggestion is simply self-suggestion. 
It has been defined as the "narrowing of the 
field of consciousness to one idea, by holding a 

given thought in the men- 
Auto-Suggestion . - - x ,- , . 

~ ~ , & ° tal focus, to the exclusion 

Denned. 

of all other thoughts." It 

has been declared in a recent criticism that self- 
suggestion is impossible. The criticism is made 
upon the ground that an idea cannot be created 
out of nothing by the sheer force of will; that 
the mind must be given material to work upon. 
The criticism is misplaced because the creation 
of an idea out of nothing is not what is meant 
by the term. Conceding that the mind is not 
thus able to create an idea, it at least has the 
power to seize upon an idea, to repeat it, and 
to emphasize it until it controlls the conscious 
thinking and reaches down into the subcon- 
scious so as to create a new habit. That is 



126 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

what auto-suggestion is commonly understood 
to mean. 

The exact physical and psychical processes 
that are covered by the term it is not possible 
to confidently affirm. Here also it is true that 

results only can be posi- 
Processes Not ,. - . , « - 

TT , n tively and accurately de- 

Understood. ./ 1 _ . . 

scribed. borne investi- 
gators have endeavored to locate the sub- 
conscious mind in the lower brain centers, 
and the conscious mind in the larger 
brain. They have sought to show that 
these lower centers are capable of exhibiting 
memory and instinct, and of producing certain 
actions independently of the brain proper. The 
experiments of Foster* with birds showed that, 
when the cerebrum was removed, the bird was 
capable of certain movements of an apparently 
spontaneous kind; and his experiments with 
frogs seemed to show that when the cerebrum 
was removed, the frog would burrow in the 
ground at the approach of cold weather, was 
able to catch flies when they came about, and 
to perform a few other actions of an apparently 
spontaneous nature. With these and similar 
experiments in mind it has been assumed that 



*"Mind Power and Privileges," Olson. 



LAW OF AUTO-SUGGESTION 12J 

the subconscious mind acts through the lower 
centers, and that it controls all the functions, 
conditions and sensations of the body; that it 
is not capable of inductive reasoning; that it 
must receive its training from the objective 
mind; and that it is always amenable to sug- 
gestion from the objective mind. History and 
experience abound with evidence showing that 
at least something of that sort is true; and 
they emphasize the importance of a better un- 
derstanding of auto-suggestion as a law of 
mind, which, when rightly used, is capable of 
working untold good, and, when wrongly used, 
is capable of producing great harm. 

To be convinced of the reality of the power 
that is exerted through auto-suggestion we 

have but to consider the 

Power of Auto- significance of such a fact 

Suggestion Illus- . , . t 

, as that which is repre- 

trated. « . * - 

sented by the various cases 

of stigmata, which have occurred all through 
history. The first case of this kind upon rec- 
ord is that of St. Frances of Assizi, who on the 
fifteenth of September, in the year twelve hun- 
dred and twenty-four, was in his cell in Mt. 
Alerno, where, with all the force of his pas- 
sionate nature, and with deep conviction that 



128 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

characterized the Roman Catholic saint of the 
Middle Ages, he was meditating upon the cross 
and passion of Jesus. His was a life given 
up to devotion, and he had probably given 
many hours to such meditation. The record 
says that, as he thought of Christ's wounds, 
five scars appeared upon his own person corre- 
sponding to the wounds of Jesus. So veritable 
were they that, at times, they emitted blood. 
There have been about a hundred other well- 
authenticated cases of this kind, the most no- 
table among w r hich was that of the nun Ve- 
ronica Guilania, an Italian lady, who in the 
year 1696 is said to have drawn upon a piece 
of paper an image which she declared had been 
inscribed upon her heart. It represented the 
cross of Christ which, she steadily maintained, 
had been stamped upon her heart. After her 
death, in 1727, a post-mortem, performed by 
Prof. Gentle and Dr. Bordega, two eminent 
doctors of the time, revealed the fact that it 
was even as she had declared. At that time 
these occurrences were hailed as miracles ; and 
to the people of that age they were miracles in 
the sense of representing the remarkable action 
of a law that was not then understood. But 



LAW OF AUTO-SUGGESTION 1 29 

with our present knowledge of the subcon- 
scious mind, and how it controls the physi- 
cal functions, conditions and sensations of the 
body, it is scarcely necessary for us to seek a 
further explanation. It may be presumed that 
all these persons were of a highly sensitive, 
nervous organization, and that they were espe- 
cially suggestable, made all the more so by the 
common mental attitude of the time, and the 
general belief in miraculous* occurrences. The 
habit of constant reflection upon the crucifixion 
of Christ, which they kept in all its lurid colors 
before the mind, emphasizing and describing it 
to themselves from time to time, was sufficient 
to produce the effects described. 

It is unquestionably true that auto- sugges- 
tion represents a great power, and it is but the 

part of wisdom to inquire 
Part of Wdsdom how that ^ works 

to Consider how , < ., , , r 

- . and how it can be used for 

Auto-Suggestion , 11, 

XXT , rational and wholesome 
Works. 

ends. It seems perfectly 
clear, for one thing, that morbid auto-sugges- 
tion is responsible for a good percentage of 
human ailments, and the chronic weakness and 
ineffeciency of a great many otherwise worthy 
people. 



I3O THE RELATION OF HEALING 

There seems to be such a thing as auto- 
suggested fright. A recent English publica- 
tion has reported this startling case.* A cer- 
tain woman suffering from 
Effects of Morbid • - . '*\ 

A « A . toothache, in order to re- 

Auto-Suggestion. . . 

lieve the pain took into her 

mouth a solution of carbolic acid, a small part 
of which she accidentally swallowed. Fright- 
ened even to the point of terror she summoned 
a physician and implored him to save her life; 
but, before anything effectual could be done, 
she died. The autopsy revealed the fact that 
the solution of carbolic acid was only a weak 
one, and that a much larger quantity might 
have been taken without in itself producing 
serious harm. The examining doctors diag- 
nosed the case as death by auto-suggested 
fright. Several well-authenticated instances of 
this kind make it clear that the possibility of 
injury through morbid auto-suggestion is very 
great. It seems likely that no inconsiderable 
amount of chronic illness is produced in this 
way. Slight pains will frequently dart through 
the body of the strongest persons, but the nor- 
mal mind does not think long of them. Some- 
times there is a gastric trouble, or a slight pain 

*Cited in a recent article by Dr. Samuel McComb. 



LAW OF AUTO-SUGGESTION I3I 

about the heart, or transient neuralgic pains; 
but the normal man, confident in his health, 
keeps right on. Not so with the person of mor- 
bidly disposed mind. To such a one each 
slight pain about the heart is a symptom of 
heart disease, and an insignificant gastric trou- 
ble is a sure token of tumor or cancer. Every 
pain and ache awakes morbid fear, which is apt 
to set up a functional disturbance and which 
in turn, may ultimate in serious disease. This 
tendency to morbid auto-suggestion is greatly 
exaggerated by the unfortunate habit, so com T 
mon among people, of talking about their ail-i 
ments and describing their symptoms whenever 
they can find a sympathetic listener. A few 
efforts to recall some affliction and to picture 
it to others or to one's self, and a process of 
auto-suggestion begins that may soon become 
automatic, resulting at last in a chronic ailment. 
If we would only learn to stop talking 
about disease, and cease picturing it to our- 
selves, and would, on the contrary, fill the mind 
with thoughts of health, we would tap a source 
of far-reaching good. The story is told of a 
small boy who found his way unobserved into 
the room of a man who was very ill. Wishing 



132 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

to show his sympathy he approached the bed 

where the sick man lay, saying, "You look 

very bad. My grandma 
Harm that comes looked ^ ^ and ghe 

from Dwelling up- 

on Disease. ' 

long enough. Good-bye! 

I must go now." Many grown-up people are 
very much like this child. Wishing to express 
their sympathy for a sick one they make the sole 
topic of conversation the sick person's ailment 
of their own. The invariable result is not only 
harm to the patient, but likewise harm to them- 
selves. 

We need not hesitate to say that, if auto- 
suggestion can work harm it is evident that it 
can also achieve good. This much at least will 

commend itself to the 
Good effects of ,, . , . . , ,« . ,, 

TTT1 _ . thinking" mind, that the 

Wholesome Auto- M , 
c .. evil that morbid auto-sug- 

Suggestion. fe 

gestion is able to do, 
wholesome auto-suggestion can undo. If mis- 
chievous ideas can set in action the automotism 
of the brain, and thus create an unwholesome 
state, it follows that good ideas in the form of 
opposing auto-suggestions can neutralize the 
first, and thereby dissipate the resultant ner- 
vous and mental ills. 



LAW OF AUTO-SUGGESTION I33 

As a force for the prevention of disease an 

even greater value of auto-suggestion is seen. 

If a man will stand erect, and make himself 

A _ TTy , right with God as far as 

A Force to Ward , , , 

rc n . he knows how: if he will 
off Disease. / . 

say to himself, m God s 
name, "Let there be health/' and will keep on 
saying it and, at the same time, act as if he 
meant it, until it becomes a habit with him to 
expect health, the suggestion will work won- 
ders for him in the way of producing health. 
He will not thereby become invincible, because 
no man is omnipotent ; but he will set into oper- 
ation one of the greatest health-preserving 
forces in the world. 

As a force for the correction of moral weak- 
ness in ourselves, irritability of temper which 
is a constant drain upon the health as well as 

_ upon the character, lack of 

A Force to Cor- 1j: ~i • ^« 

,. , « fA self-confidence, besetting 
rect Moral Faults. ■ ' t & 

self-consciousness, the ten- 
dency to discouragement, viscious habits, evil 
thought, and other moral maladies of a similar 
kind, the value of auto-suggestion is very great. 
Many a man is in bondage to some unworthy 
feeling, to some dark prejudice, or to some 
abnormal mental habit, and the result is that 



134 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

life is circumscribed and weakened and made 
ineffective. But every thinking person knows 
that life-long habits have been overcome, moral 
wounds have b.een cured, and in numberless in- 
stances the whole weakened nature has been 
quickened into new life. In bringing such re- 
sults to pass auto-suggestion affords a method 
of undoubted worth. 

The whole secret of successful auto-sug- 
gestion is to fill the mind with the idea and the 
enthusiastic hope of the thing that is desired, 

is needed, is right for us to 
Secret of Success- , A . , 

r , . _ seek and is wise to have. 

ful Auto-Sugges- . . 

If one is suffering from a 
tion. . fe 

chronic weakness he should 
fill the mind with the thought and the hope of 
health and strength. It may not cure the ail- 
ment, since its very nature makes it incurable ; 
but the auto-suggestion cannot harm, and the 
chances are that it will greatly help. If the 
wear and tear of living have taken hold of the 
nerves, it is possible to send thoughts of health 
and rest into the deeper strata of our natures 
with such energy, after a little training, as to 
cause the subconscious mind readily to respond 
to helpful suggestions from the objective mind, 
waking its calm, strong, resourcefulness and 



LAW OF AUTO-SUGGESTION 1 35 

bringing into effective play remedial results. 
It is not meant of course that mere parrot-like 
repetitions of certain ideas can prove a panacea 
for all our ills. One who has grasped only 
this idea from the foregoing remarks will not 
be long in getting undeceived. The subcon- 
scious mind must be re-educated and reclaimed ; 
and education is always a slow process. 

The quiescent state preceeding sleep is per- 
haps the most favorable time for the giving of 
commands and the imparting of encourage- 
ment to the subconscious 
Quiescent State sdf> « Think it all QUt „ 

before Sleep Qne writ * « the kind 

Favorable to r 1 1 1-1 

A « ^ of person you would like 

Auto-Suggestion. r J 

to become; and when the 

spell of sleep begins to make itself felt, project 

that thought into the deeper self which is so 

shortly to be intrusted with the watch-care of 

your destiny. Repeat the experiment each night, 

and each new day will bring reward." 

A splendid practice for one who is vexed 

with nervous trouble, is worried into illness over 

some hard problem, or is afflicted with some 

besetting weakness, is to retire each day, at a 

given time, to a quiet place, there to relax and 



♦Robert McDonald. 



I36 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

to give one's self up to the thought of health 
and strength. A few minutes each day of such 
meditation and such thought-training will yield 
surprising results. After 
Retirement for a £ ew suc j 1 experiences 

Tho d u ta ht° n and hdpful su ^ estion becomes 
. . an ever-present thought 

Training. . u , 

companion. 1 he busy 

hours of the day are not sufficient to obliterate 
it, and gradually it becomes a force to awaken 
the nature and to shape the life for better 
things. 

One of the most beautiful forms of auto- 
suggestion is found in prayer. Auto-sugges- 
tion is not, of course, the whole of prayer, and 

_ yet, all the prayer that is 

Prayer as Auto- . n , . , . 

. sent up to bod tends also 

Suggestion. r 

to become an auto-sugges- 
tion projecting confidence into the deeper strata 
of the mind and thus releasing the subconscious 
powers. "Pray without ceasing," commands 
the New Testament, and that precept when 
obeyed not only helps to make us one with God, 
but serves to inspire us with faith and hope. 



IX 

THE HEALING MINISTRY 
OF JESUS 



"We can to some extent judge of what we do not 
know, by what we do know. And we have in this 
matter one certainty to start with. That is the im- 
pression made by Jesus upon His disciples and upon 
their successors through all the following ages." 

J. Brierle. 

"They brought to Him all that were sick and 
them that were possessed of demons, and He healed 
many that were sick of diverse diseases and cast 
out many demons." Gospel of Mark. 



CHAPTER IX. 



THE HEALING MINISTRY OF JESUS. 

A conspicuous and interesting feature of 
the record of Jesus is the portion of the narra- 
tive that deals with his healing ministry. One 
statement affirms that they 

ecor o brought to him all that 
Christ's Healing s 

, were sick and them that 
work. 

were possessed of demons, 
and he healed many that were sick of divers 
diseases and cast out many demons. Another 
statement affirms that a great multitude from 
Galilee followed, and from Judea, and from 
Jerusalem, and from Idumea, and beyond Jor- 
dan, and about Tyre and Sidon, for he had 
healed many, in so much that as many as had 
plagues, pressed upon him that they might 
touch him. And, according to the record, 
Jesus himself conceived of his mission as that 
of physician to both soul and body. To the 
Pharisees he said, — "They that are whole have 



I4O THE RELATION OF HEALING 

no need of a physician, but they that are sick." 

And to Herod he sent the message, "Behold I 

cast out devils and do cures." 

The presence of this element in the New 

Testament has from the earliest times excited 

grave skepticism in the minds of some. Hume's 

famous argument against 
Skepticism the credibilit of the whole 

Awakened by . - 1 P ,- 

- n , miraculous element of the 

the Record. ^ 

Gospels upon the ground 

that we have no experience of the breaking 
of natural laws, but that we have every expe- 
rience of the credulity and liability to error of 
human narrators of such occurrences, and 
Strauss' elaborate doctrine of the myth and 
its application to the New Testament, threat- 
ened for the time to discredit the entire record 
of Jesus. But in more recent times the con- 
viction has steadily been gaining ground, until 
it may be said to be the judgment of the best 
scholarship today that the New Testament nar- 
ratives, in the main, especially those in the first 
three gospels, represent a faithful picture of the 
teachings and doings of Jesus. 

It is true that scholarship admits the pres- 
ence of a mythical strain. The fact cannot be 



HEALING MINISTRY OF JESUS I4I 

ignored that the earliest of the narratives is 
separated by at least a generation from the oc- 
currence it narrates, and 
Presence of a 

i_ , . , ~ . many convincing examples 

Mythical Strain. , J , * , , , 

have been adduced from 

history which suffice to show that, amongst 
simple peoples, a plain narrative has in a few 
decades blossomed into a miracle story. It is 
especially true, as one writer has pointed out, 
that miracles grow apace in the East and a few 
years suffice to mature them But, in the words 
of Harnack, the unique character of the gos- 
pels is universally recognized by criticism to- 
day. And that they represent in the main a 
first hand tradition is reasonably certain. The 
account of his healing ministry especially is so 
interwoven with the most probable incidents 
of his life, and so supported by his authentic 
words, and so sustained by evidence of every 
sort that it simply cannot be eliminated with- 
out doing violence to the entire record. And 
with the new point of view that has been gained 
by the psychologic research of recent years it 
may be said that the motive for doing so has 
largely ceased to exist. 

What first of all was the nature of the cures 
that Jesus wrought? It would seem from a 



142 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

hasty examination of the record that he treated 

successfully not only the common functional 

types of disease, such as 

„. - in all generations have 

His Cures. ° . 

readily yielded to psy- 
chic treatment, but also the more acute and 
serious organic forms. Specific mention is 
made of at least a dozen different ailments, 
such as leprosy, blindness, paralysis, demoniac 
possession, hemorrhage, fever, dropsy, deaf- 
ness, dumbness, impotency, a withered hand 
and a wounded ear. And to these must be 
added three cases of death which is reputed to 
have overcome. 

From the standpoint of scientifically accred- 
ited knowledge it must be recognized that, not- 
withstanding the specific character of the rec- 
ord, there is room for 
The Standpoint , * ,, . , , 

r ^ . . r much doubt in regard to 

of Evidence. , r • 1 

the nature of the cures that 

were wrought by Jesus. The truth is that the 
diseases which are specified represent only a 
popular, and not a scientific diagnosis. What 
for example was the nature of the leprosy 
which he is reported to have cured? Was it 
the malignant type, which, in view of medical 
science today is incurable? Or was it simply 



HEALING MINISTRY OF JESUS I43 

one of the many forms of skin disease which 
are instanced by the Old Testament, some of 
which at least may have been due to purely 
nervous causes? The record does not say, 
and there is available no other source of infor- 
mation. And what was the nature of the blind- 
ness, and deafness, and dumbness, and fever 
which he is reported to have cured ? Were they 
serious organic difficulties, or were they merely 
the hysteric and nervous types, such as those 
which are not infrequently encountered today ? 
Again the record does not specify. It is prob- 
ably true, as a recent writer* has pointed out, 
that even in the reported cases of restoration 
from the dead, there is far less ground for cer- 
tainty than is commonly supposed. In at least 
two out of three instances recorded in the nar- 
ratives, Jesus is said to have distinctly pro- 
nounced the death to be sleep. It is true that 
they "laughed him to scorn" when he said it; 
but the very fact that in two cases he said they 
were asleep is at least sufficient justification for 
raising the question whether, by reason of his 
insight, he was not able to appreciate a dis- 
tinction between actual dissolution and appar- 
ent death, which was of the nature of coma or 



♦"The Psychology of Jesus," by Hitchcock. 



144 T HE RELATION OF HEALING 

suspended animation, and which would doubt- 
less have resulted in death had not the subject 
been delivered from it. In view of all the facts 
about the record, and the mental character of 
the witnesses through whom these instances 
of re-animation have come to us, it seems not 
improbable that they may have had some such 
an origin. 

And some allowance must also be made in 
estimating the cures which Jesus is reported to 
have made, for the presence of a legendary ele- 
ment. It is now quite gen- 
Allowance to be n • , , ,1 

, erally recognized, by those 

made for the , „ n 1 : . i 

Legendary Part. who are ^ uabfied t0 J ud ^ e ' 
that the story of the im- 
potent man, in John's narrative, is of a purely 
legendary character. In the latest revision of 
the New Testament the story is put in brackets, 
and the margin calls attention to the fact that 
it is not recognized by the oldest manuscripts. 
And it is not unlikely that the incident of the 
wounded ear, reported by the same author, will 
ultimately have to be assigned to the same 
category? Just how much must be deducted 
from the record on account of this element, 
cannot in our present state of knowledge be 



HEALING MINISTRY OF JESUS I45 

determined, nor is it now necessary that it 

should be. 

But manifestly it is not simply upon the 

basis of evidence that the record of Christ's 

healing work is to be judged. While it is main- 

. ly a question of evidence, 

Standpoint of .. . ,i 1 

tt- t» 1^ it is partly also a question 

His Personality. r J J- , 

of personality. Scientific 

research," says Mr. Brierlie,* "in enormously 
widening the reign of law has at the same time 
opened to us vast and hitherto unperceived pos- 
sibilities of personality." Get the quality of 
personality high enough and there is nothing 
that we may not expect from it. Outer nature 
is but the expression of it. Apart from thought 
the very existence of matter cannot be con- 
ceived of. While the conception of miracle as 
the "breaking of natural laws" is now dis- 
credited, it is by no means incredible that a per- 
sonality of the quality of Jesus by reason of 
greater discernment and a greater mastery of 
nature's laws, may have been able to produce 
effects in the most natural ways that men at 
large have not yet come to understand. 

Says Dr. Richard C. Cabot, "The power to 
call out unused energies depends upon knowl- 



*"Our City of God," Brierlie. 
10 



I46 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

edge. There is nothing self-contradictory in 
the cure of organic troubles by psychic and 
moral means. So far the facts of ordinary ex- 
perience seem to show 
Creative « - A „ 

A ,. that they are not so cured. 

Assertion. J ' 

But that does not prove 

that one of the Master's quality could not have 
produced such cures, or that men at large by 
reason of a higher development of personality, 
shall not be able eventually to produce them. 
"Given a personality like that of Jesus, and un- 
usual mental and moral qualities are assured. 
Given a ministry like that of Jesus, and unusual 
things are sure to happen." We must calculate 
the intensity of a force by its effects ; and if we 
try in this way to measure the quality of Jesus, 
we are at a loss to put a limit to it. As some- 
one has put it, "If the Gospel narratives are 
exaggerations, we have to account for the feel- 
ing that produced the exaggeration and com- 
pelled these people to speak in superlatives." 
But while for the present this question of 
the nature of the cures that were wrought by 
Christ must be left open, and we must be care- 
ful to guard ourselves from dogmatic asser- 
tion, there are other aspects of Christ's heal- 
ing work which are less obscure and of which 



HEALING MINISTRY OF JESUS I47 

therefore it is possible to speak with greater 

confidence. It is evident for one thing that the 

healing ministry of Jesus reveals as nothing 

else has ever done the in- 
Other Aspects ,. , ,. ,« , 
r TT . r timate connection that 
of His , ,. - 
tt ,• TXT- 1 exists between disease and 
Healing Work. 

moral fault. "Medical 
science," says Matthew Arnold, "has never 
gaged, never perhaps enough set itself to gage, 
the intimate connection between moral fault 
and disease." But the healing work of Jesus 
reveals, as nothing else has ever done, that 
there is such a connection. It was not that he 
shared the common notion of his time, that 
every disease is the indication and proof of 
some particular sin. But nevertheless his at- 
titude toward disease makes it clear that he 
thought of it as somehow related to moral fault, 
and as having its deepest root in moral springs. 
Christ saw clearly, what most of us are only 
now beginning to appreciate, that a wrong con- 
ception of God and of his relation to man may 
so depress the soul as to interfere with the en- 
tire mechanism of the body and prepare the 
way for every sort of bodily disturbance; that 
selfishness, making an undue demand upon us, 
leads to worry, and that worry is at the back 



I48 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

of many ailments. He saw also that the pres- 
sure of some evil upon the conscience, uncon- 
fessed and unforgiven, may create an inner 
state that not only brings misery but brings 
moral weakness and the loss of mental energy 
and physical power. 

Accordingly, what Christ in his treatment 
of disease aimed in particular to do was to 
awaken the moral nature of the subject and to 

lead him into a normal 

His Particular « * 1 .... t 

, m and wholesome attitude 

Aim in the Treat- , ~ 1 , 1 . 

ment of Disease. t0ward God ' toward him " 
self and toward his fel- 
lows. There were those evidently who went to 
him with a belief that he was a dealer in magic, 
and that, by a simple wave of the hand or some 
mysterious word, a marvelous cure would fol- 
low. But what Christ said and did were not 
of the nature of magic. The healing force was 
in the sufferer himself, planted there by man's 
Creator, as the power to burn inheres in fire 
and as the power to quench inheres in water. 
And what Christ tried to do was to evoke an 
attitude that would release this power and give 
it a chance to work. It is no disparagement of 
his healing power to say that he used the sug- 
gestive method, and that by every word, and 



HEALING MINISTRY OF JESUS I49 

look, and gesture, and by bringing the whole 
force of his personality to bear upon the suf- 
ferer, he endeavored to awaken his nature, to 
dispel his delusion and to bring him to a nor- 
mal condition. Whatever one's conception of 
the nature of Jesus, it must be recognized, upon 
the basis of the New Testament itself, that in 
"all things he was made like unto his brethren. " 
It is therefore no disparagement to say that 
in treating disease he used such methods as 
are open to all men, although we may well be- 
lieve that he used them more perfectly than 
others as yet have been able to do. 

The attitude which Christ sought to evoke 
is indicated in the record by the word "pistis," 
rendered "faith" in our version, but possessing 

a larger meaning than 
Attitude which , £ ... . ,. 

our word faith implies. 

E , Wherever there is a de- 

tailed account of a work of 
healing there was the presence of this attitude. 
To many who besought his help he said, "Ac- 
cording to your faith be it unto you." And to 
others he said when the cure had been wrought, 
"Thy faith hath made thee whole." And it is 
explicitly stated that when this attitude was 
wanting he could do no mighty work. It is 



I50 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

true that in a few instances he is reputed to 
have wrought a cure in the patient's absence; 
but in such instances there was always a strik- 
ing exhibition of faith upon the part of the pa- 
tient's friend who came to Jesus, and it may- 
be presumed that the faith which was mani- 
fested by the sick person's friends was that of 
the invalid also. 

In Fogazzaro's Saint* the author puts the 
following words into the mouth of his hero, 
Benedetto. He is speaking to an excited throng 
about the healing of a young girl which has 
just taken place. "You exalt me because you 
are blind. If the girl is healed I have not 
healed her, but her faith has made her whole. 
This power of faith which has caused her to 
rise up and walk is in God's world everywhere 
and always like the power of terror which 
causes us to tremble and bow down. It is 
a power in the soul like the powers which are 
in water and fire. Therefore if the girl is 
healed it is because God has put this great 
power into His world. Praise God for it and 
not me. And now listen, you offend God by 
believing his strength and bounty to be greater 
in miracles. His strength and bounty are every- 

*"The Saint," Fogazzaro. 



HEALING MINISTRY OF JESUS 151 

where, and always infinite. It is difficult to 
understand how faith can heal, but it is impos- 
sible to understand how this flower can grow. 
God would be no less powerful, no less good 
if this girl had not been healed. It is well to 
pray for health, but pray still more fervently 
to understand this great thing of which I have 
just told you. Pray to adore God's will when 
it gives you death, as when it gives you life. 
Have faith and you will be healed without the 
earthly physician. But remember that your 
faith can be used to better purpose according 
to the will of God. Are you perfectly healthy 
in your souls? No, you are not, and what can 
it profit you that the skin be whole if the wine 
is spoiled ? You love yourselves and your fam- 
ilies better than truth, better than justice, bet- 
ter than divine law." 

And so Peter, also, when the lame man who 
lay at the temple gate was healed and the mul- 
titude ran together in amazement, said to them, 

"Why marvel ye at this 
Acts of the r , 

man or fasten your eyes 
Apostles. , \ , J 

upon us as though by our 

own power or godliness we had made him walk. 
His faith has made him whole." And so the 
Master declared to the people of his time, "Thy 



152 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

faith hath made thee whole." Because of his 
deep insight Jesus recognized the presence of 
this power, and as no other has ever done he 
was able to lay hold of it and use it. He did 
not claim that it was his own ; he said it was of 
God, and gave God the glory. And this power 
did not leave the world with the disappearance 
of Jesus and his immediate apostles. It is still 
present for us to discover and to use. Slowly, 
but surely, we are learning the secret of using 
it. 



X 

THE SECRET OF THE SOUL 



God hath ordained that, like Paul's, every human 
body shall register personal history, publishing a 
man's deeds, and proclaiming his allegiance to good 
or evil. 

Xewel Dwight Hillis. 

They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their 

strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles. 

they shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk 

and not faint. 

Isaiah. 



CHAPTER X. 



THE SECRET OF THE SOUL. 

The foregoing studies all converge in this 

question of the soul. To a greater extent than 

has commonly been realized the problem of 

health and happiness is a 

Health and problem of the soul. "The 

appmess a inward experience/' says 

Problem of /. ,. . , - . u . 

- , a distinguished writer, is 

the Soul. . to 

not simply gone through 

and then done with. The joy or pain of the 
moment, the mind's thought, the will's yes or 
no, each leaves behind a deposit of effect which 
will work endlessly and in a thousand different 
forms." 

What is the soul? When man is first in- 
troduced to us in history we find him asking 
this question. The Egyptian book of the dead 
and the Assyrian tablets which take us back 
six thousand years reveal the fact that man 



156 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

even then was asking, as he is now asking, 

"What is the soul?" And the Bhagavad Gita 

of India, the speculation of 

What is the Soul? ™ , ' « v.. £ 

Plato, the writings of 

Philo, the New Testament authors, the poetry 
of Dante, Milton, Wordsworth, Tennyson and 
Browning all show that man in his highest 
moods has reverted to this question of the soul. 
And the result of all this thinking has been to 
establish, at least in the best minds, the convic- 
tion that the soul is man's innermost self, an 
immaterial principle, the seat of the self-con- 
scious personality. "It is not merely," as a 
recent writer declares,* "that the soul is to be 
regarded as an entity which is in process of 
development and which is intended at death 
to replace the personality." "The soul is the 
personality, the ego, the true self that calculates, 
and memorizes, and wills, and feels, and suf- 
fers, and is the seat of moral judgment. In 
every act of thinking a distinction is readily 
recognized between the thinker and his thought, 
or, as it is otherwise expressed, between the 
self and the not self, the thinking subject and 
the object of his thought. This thinking sub- 
ject is the soul. It is therefore more exact and 



*"The Law of Christian Healing." —Fitzgerald. 



SECRET OF THE SOUL 1 57 

scientific to speak of man as a soul, rather than 

as a being who has a soul." 

In the teaching of Jesus much is said about 

the exceeding preciousness of the soul. It is 

beyond all price. Nothing can be accepted in 

^ a exchange for it. The gain 

x r T ** of the whole world would 

of Jesus. . t 

not compensate for the 

loss of it. There was much speculation in his 
time about the origin of the soul, and there 
had been- for hundreds of years. Thinkers of 
that period had asked whether the soul is a 
direct emanation from God, or whether one 
soul generates another. And they had debated 
whether the soul is of the same essence as the 
Deity or is something inferior. But the great 
teacher, brushing aside mere speculation, put 
the chief emphasis upon a proper care for the 
soul. The man who lived simply for his body, 
and who said to himself. "Take thine ease, 
eat, drink and be merry/' is rebuked with awful 
language. God says to him, "Thou fool, this 
night thy soul shall be required of thee." 

And impressive also are the words attrib- 
uted to the grand old philosopher, Socrates, 
in which he describes himself as doing nothing 



158 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

but to go about in order to persuade old and 
young alike not to take thought for their bod- 
ies, or their properties, 
but first and chiefly to 
care about the greatest improvement of their 
soul. 

But, in spite of the New Testament, and in 
spite of those who have plead so earnestly for 
the rights of the soul, the prevailing habit of 

thought has been material- 
The Materialistic ... rp t , ... 

Habit of Thought. f C - The vast majjmty 

have mistaken their iden- 
tity. They have regarded themselves as ma- 
terial and have enthroned the material; and 
the result has been to reverse the natural order 
and to generate conditions which are morbid 
and unwholesome. It makes all the difference 
whether the body rules or the rational and 
spiritual self rules; and it is just here that men 
at large have made their greatest failure. They 
expect sometime, after an event that we call 
"death," to become a soul, but that we are soul 
here and now the average man has not yet been 
able to realize. 

Unquestionably man's greatest need is to 
assert himself as a soul, and to live as a soul 
whose servant is the body, and not as a body 



SECRET OF THE SOUL 1 59 

whose servant is the soul. The figure employed 
in the New Testament to represent the subor- 
dinate place of the body is that of a tenement 

or dwelling.* "If our 
Man's Greatest earthl tenement is de _ 

Need to Assert * , , . tJ 

stroyed we have a build- 
Himself as a .. , ^ 1 , 

g , ing of God, a 'tenement 

not made with hands, 
eternal in the heavens. " But the tenement is 
not the occupant. However important it may 
be, it is not the occupant. It exists for the oc- 
cupant and not the occupant for the tenement. 
In our present state of existence matter is a 
necessary medium of the soul and as such it is 
not to be underrated, and its laws are not to 
be despised. It is probably true, as idealism 
avers, that thought is at the back of matter; 
that a pebble, or piece of chalk, is but the outer 
crust of ideas. Nevertheless it represents 
something that must be reckoned with, and it 
has laws that must be obeyed. It may be that 
our food is but an outer crust of ideas, but 
nevertheless we must have some of the outer 
crust from day to day or we suffer. But what 
man needs to realize is that matter is the ser- 
vant of the soul, and is moulded and shaped 



*The Apostle Paul. 



l60 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

by the soul. In the words of Edmund Spencer, 

"Of the soul the body form doth take; 
For soul is form and doth the body make. ' ' 

The body, as one writer puts it, is passive 
and is acted upon. The elements which today 
make up the body of the animal or the tree may 

have figured long ago in 
The Passivity ,, , . , . £ 

„ _ , J the material organism of 

of Matter. , * 

a prophet or philosopher. 

There was no ascent or descent in the ma- 
terial, but only in its user. In the deepest sense 
the real tree is the tree life and not simply 
the temporary material which it has grasped 
for outward expression. All progress is in 
the unseen. The body is not the person, but 
only the well-fitting clothing that shows the 
quality and taste of the present owner. 

Pause for a moment on this latter state- 
ment. We all recognize 
Evidence that the in some measure that the 

|^ leaves its invisible things of the soul 

, _P , P write themselves upon the 

the Body. ,.,. , r 

outer life and upon the 

whole physical organism. Out of a life de- 
voted to high purposes there come subtile beau- 



SECRET OF THE SOUL l6l 

ties of form and expression which advertise 
the nobleness within ; and on the other hand we 
know that the inward corruption of an ignoble 
soul puts its disfiguring mark on eye, and brow, 
and lip, and distorts every facial line. The 
story has been told of a burglar who accidentally 
discharged a magnesium light connected with 
a kodak on a shelf. The hour was midnight 
and every soul in the house was wrapped in 
slumber. The burglar frightened by the sud- 
den glare of light, fled from the premises leav- 
ing his booty behind him. And he left some- 
thing else behind ; he left his face in the kodak ; 
and the next day, in the police court, the kodak 
convicted him. Thus the body registers the 
soul. Each man bears about in his body the 
marks of ignorance and sin, of fear and re- 
morse, or he bears about the marks of heroism 
and virtue, of love and integrity. No breath 
is so faint that it can escape recording itself, 
no whisper so low, no plan so secret, no deed 
of evil so dark and silent. As the right act 
or true thought sets its stamp of beauty, so 
the wrong act and the foul deed sets its seal of 
distortion. 

And it is not simply a mechanical process 
that brings this result to pass. The life forces 

11 



1 62 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

are directed by intelligence. Underneath our 

conscious mental processes there is a mentality 

that never sleeps or rests, 
Not simply a and it fa thrQUgh ^ 

Mechanical - . . .^ ., 

_ subconscious activity that 

Process. . 

the soul leaves its stamp. 

It is therefore not without reason that many 

have come to feel that the real cause of bodily 

weakness and disease is within and not without. 

That the inner suscepti- 

Reai Cause of ,.,., • . u r™ , 

^. „,. , . bility is the cause. That 

Disease Within Jf ' ,. . . - 

j *. irrsL the outer condition is but 

and not Without, 

the occasion. That when 

the soul, ruling its household, receives its due 

respect and homage, and the divine order is 

complied with, there is health and harmony. 

That when the soul's grasp is loosened, and its 

authority is weakened, there is corresponding 

physical decay and a loss of resisting capacity. 

It is not simply that disease is a dream 

of falsity, an error of mortal mind with no 

objective reality. Condi- 
Disease not ... . , - 
. , ^ tions without are always 
Simply an Error. t , . J 

real enough, and, when 

abnormal, contain at least the potency of phys- 
ical evil. 

It is not merely that the conscious mental 



SECRET OF THE SOUL 1 63 

state is the responsible factor in illness; the 
trouble lies deeper. For centuries man has 
thought of himself as material, and has identi- 
fied himself with his body, 
Real Difficulty in faiH tQ ^^ h[s tme 

Subjective , f 

,, * ... nature; and the result 

Mentality. ' 

has been the creating of a 

false consciousness, the bringing of himself 
into a slavish subjection to outward conditions, 
and the making of himself unduly susceptible. 
He has woven for himself a subconscious net- 
work of false ideas and fancies that holds him 
in slavery and makes him unduly subject to a 
multitude of ailments. The soul works with 
supreme exactness. The wonderful accuracy 
of its processes would doubtless astonish us 
were we able to behold and to analyze them. 
But, though we cannot explore these hidden 
processes, it is reasonably certain that the ma- 
terial organism is an exact reproduction in 
quality of past individual and collective think- 
ing. Such a conclusion is simply the logical 
outcome of the admitted proposition that man 
is soul and not simply a body. 

Accordingly it may be said that our surest 
hope of emancipation from a multitude of woes 
and disorders is in the realization of true self- 



164 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

hood. In order to escape from the false and 

materialistic consciousness as our greatest 

hindrance and the chief 
Importance of cause Qf moml inadequacy 

Realizing true 1 1 • 1 1 

iri f and physical weakness, we 

Selfhood. r J ' 

must affirm repeatedly to 

ourselves, and to one another, that we are 
spiritual and not material — that we are soul 
having a body and not simply a body having a 
soul. 

The qualification for high attainment, for 
resisting capacity in dealing with unwhole- 
some outward conditions and as well for exer- 
cising mastery over them, 

Broad Spiritual r -, . 

„ „ i\„ is found in proper recog- 

Fact of Life must . . ,,.,,,* £ 

. ^ .j nition of the basal fact of 

be Recognized. 

our spiritual nature, and 

in the incessant cultivation of our central and 
innermost. As men come into a true self- 
recognition and assume the prerogative of true 
self-hood, there is every reason to believe that 
they will be able to grasp new forces, to wield 
new powers and to offer a new resistance to 
abnormal outward conditions. By virtue of an 
inner transformation they will be able to es- 
tablish new relations to the outer world, and 
the laws and forces of the outward world which 



SECRET OF THE SOUL 165 

have exacted tribute will then begin to pay it. 
Says Henry Wood,* — "Man searches the ob- 
jective world over for balms, specifics, and 
panaceas, and experiments with every known 
external thing but fails to understand the near- 
est and grandest of all things, his own consti- 
tution. He goes abroad for congenial environ- 
ment, sunny skies, and favoring climates but 
fails to get away from his own perverted 
thoughts concerning himself and from his false 
consciousness. He must learn that through 
proper ideals he may displace his spectres. 
Through the spiritual alembic of his inner na- 
ture he may rightfully call for all things to 
pay him tribute." 

The recognition of himself as soul brings 

emancipation from the 
Emancipation , , ,, , , , 

, r _ tyranny of the body ; and 

from the Tyranny . . \ f . J 

of the Flesh. that 1S the one thmg neces " 

sary for its own welfare. 

Order is heaven's first law. Misplacement is 

lawless and destructive. As the servant of the 

soul, the body exercises a useful service for its 

owner and becomes the outward reflector and 

translator of spiritual harmony. Exhalted to 



*"Studies in the Thought World." 



l66 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

the place of ruler it becomes a disturber and a 

creator of discord. 

God breathed into man the breath of life 

and he became a living soul; and as such his 

capacity for rulership over the outward and 

material is above measure. 
God Breathed into fa ^ ^^ rf ^^ 

Man the Breath „ TT . M , . 1 P 

- T ., He is the vehicle of some- 

of Life. 

thing or someone higher 

than himself." That something or someone 
higher than himself is his real self, or as some- 
one* has called it, "The unincarnated part of 
him." 

Much is said just now by the members of a 
certain sect about mere "mortal mind" and its 
inadequacy. Let us not be too confident here. 
The reasons are multiply- 
ing for believing* that what 
Incarnation. . - . . . „ - , 

in derision is called mortal 

mind is in reality a divine incarnation. 
"Neither philosophy nor religion," says Mr. 
Breirley, "can get on without a doctrine of in- 
carnation." Nature through all her processes 
is seen laboring to produce personality as her 
final end. "Man thinks by means of an eternal 
reason at the basis of his thoughts ; he approves 



*Sir Oliver Lodge. 



SECRET OF THE SOUL 167 

or condemns himself by an eternal righteous- 
ness mysteriously linked to and doubling his 
own." This is the secret of the soul, that be- 
hind the ideas and consciousness which seem so 
clear to us there is the infinite ground for our 
being more and more filling us and realizing 
Himself through us. And the possibilities of 
mastery over the outer and lower which are 
wrapped up in this fact are greater than the 
most daring flight of the imagination is able 
to comprehend. 



All truly wise thoughts have been already thought 
thousands of times; but to make them truly ours we 
must think them over honestly, till they take firm 
root in our personal experience. Goethe. 

If you keep painting the devil on the walls, he 
will by and by appear to you. 

French Proverbs. 



XI 
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 



The Lord hath created medicines out of the earth 
and he that is wise will not abhor them. My son, in 
thy sickness be not negligent, but pray unto the 
Lord and He will make thee whole. * * * Then 
give place to the physician, for the Lord hath 
created him. Let him not go from thee, for thou 
hast need of him. There is a time when in their hands 
there is good success. For they also shall pray unto 
the Lord that he should prosper that which they give 
for ease and to prolong life. 

Ecclesiasticus. 



CHAPTER XL 



QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS. 
C. Eugene Riggs, M. D. 

i. Explain the difference between Imagin- 
ary Diseases and Diseased Imaginations. 

There are no "Imaginary Diseases;" Dis- 
ease is actual; even functional disorders have 
behind them a basis of physical reality. To 
many I suppose that imaginary diseases and 
diseased imaginations seem but the reverse 
sides of the same shield; but to me this does 
not conduce to clear thinking. 

I assume that the questioner would include 
under this head functional disturbances of 
psychic origin ; this I regard as an error as all 
such should be grouped under the head of dis- 
eased imaginations. The morbid conditions of 
this second category — diseased imaginations, 
are due to misinterpretation of sense impres- 
sions; their number is legion; their range is 



172 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

wide, extending from the neuroses on the one 
hand to the psychoses on the other. The fol- 
lowing illustration will best make clear my 
meaning. 

Some six or eight years ago a physician 
from Michigan came to consult me. His man- 
ner was distraught and his countenance 
anxious. Bursting into tears he said to me, 
"Doctor, I am suffering from locomotor ataxia; 
I cannot stand with my eyes shut without 
swaying, my knee jerks are lost and I have 
the lightning pains characteristic of this dis- 
ease." An examination showed that there 
was no swaying, the knee jerks were present, 
and what he had regarded as lightning pains 
were vague indefinite sensations frequently 
found in neurasthenics. I said to him, "Doc- 
tor, your imagination has played you false. 
You have not one of the four cardinal symp- 
toms peculiar to tabes dorsalis. Dismiss for- 
ever from your mind all apprehension with ref- 
erence to this disease. Go back to your work 
with a thankful mind." Last spring I again 
saw this physician. He was in bouyant spirits 
and perfectly well. 

A second illustration is that of a business 
man from a neighboring state who came to me 



QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 1 73 

a year ago saying that he was suffering from 
serious spinal disease and wished my opinion. 
Twelve years previously he had received an in- 
jury which caused severe pain over the mid- 
dorsal vertebrae, since which he had never been 
well. He had always been used to outdoor 
sports, was very fond of hunting and fishing, 
but of late years was unable to engage in these, 
as a little overexertion caused excruciating pain 
with great nervous disturbance. This latter 
was characterized by irritability, sleeplessness, 
apprehension, marked stomach disturbance 
and agonizing pain in the back. This has been 
so severe of late that his family physician pre- 
scribed opiates for its relief. His condition was 
such that it practically incapacitated him for 
all business. The initial pain in the back was 
without doubt due to a wrench or strain of the 
muscles and ligaments of the mid-dorsal region. 
This was real but it was of a nature to have 
persisted for only a relatively short time. The 
pain of which he complained when he consulted 
me and from which he had suffered in increas- 
ing intensity for all these years, was undoubt- 
edly psychic. I said to him, "My dear sir, 
your imagination has played you false. You 
have not one symptom of structural disease of 



174 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

the cord or vertebrae ; your pain is phychic and 
both it and the distressing nervous symptoms 
from which you have suffered so persistently 
are due to a groundless apprehension, a true 
auto-suggestion." His improvement was im- 
mediate. He returned home very shortly and 
has been in excellent health ever since. 

My last illustration is that of a young 
woman, highly educated, of remarkable good 
sense, widely traveled, physically robust al- 
though a neurasthenic. She was sent to me for 
headache. I have never seen any person suffer 
greater pain. She had consulted the best East- 
ern oculists and they could find nothing wrong 
with the eyes.. The pain usually began in the 
head, and when it reached its climax there was 
paralysis of both upper eyelids and the per- 
spiration stood out in great drops over the fore- 
head. It would then extend to the trunk and 
the extremities. Her suffering was so severe 
at first that I thought it was caused by organic 
disease. The usual remedies failed to relieve 
her. 

After a time I decided that it was psychic 
pain and frankly told her so. I said to her that 
I should give her no more medicines for its 
relief; that she would have to be courageous 



QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 1 75 

and ignore it as much as possible ; that she was 
sure to recover, although it would be months 
and probably a year or so before she was en- 
tirely well. She made a perfect recovery as 
predicted. 

A frank, candid statement of the exact con- 
dition is imperative in all these cases. In this 
way for ignorance and fear you substitute 
knowledge and hope. Ignorance and fear are 
factors potential for great evil when placed at 
the disposal of the average imagination; a 
veritable box of Pandora. 

2. Do all Functional Troubles originate in 
the mind? 

To this question I unhesitatingly answer 
"NO," although the Psycho-pathologist would 
not agree with me in this. He believes that 
Neurasthenia, Hysteria and Psychasthenia, 
(and by "Psychasthenia" I mean a disease de- 
scribed of late years the symptoms of which are 
a composite — hysterical and neurasthenic, to 
which a touch of the obsessions has been 
added) are diseases of that intangible some- 



176 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

thing called Subconscious Self. The consensus 
of opinion among neurologists does not agree 
with this. Hysteria and psychasthenia may be 
regarded as psychic, but not neurasthenia. 
Since a physical alteration due to chemical or 
bacterial toxins is its most probable cause. All 
neurasthenics, however, show a more or less 
pronounced psychical element, 

At this point it may be well again to define 
the difference between organic and functional 
disease. In the former there is an actual modi- 
fication of tissue readily recognized by the 
naked eye or- the microscope ; in the latter no 
lesson is demonstrated even by the most ap- 
proved modern technique; it is simply conject- 
ural that there is a delicate nutritive change, 
probably molecular in character, although basic 
conditions must differ radically in functional 
disturbances due to physical cause and one 
originating from mental influence. This must 
be so, as it is conceded by all psychologists that 
every mental change is accompanied by a corre- 
sponding change in the nervous system, and in 
abnormal mental states correlative changes 
necessarily occur in the nervous tissue. 

The moment that nutritive change reaches 
the point of structural modification, the bound- 



QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 1 77 

ary between the organic and functional is im~ 
mutibly Axed. 

3. Please state from a physician's stand- 
point the dangers of treating disease without 
proper diagnosis. 

The supreme test of a physician's skill is his 
ability to make an accurate diagnosis. If his 
medical education, his hospital interneship and 
his practical experience in medicine have failed 
to equip him for this, they have failed at the 
most vital point. He is a medical ineffi- 
cient and ranks so far as skill is con- 
cerned with the quack and the charlatan. 
The inability to distinguish between a 
malignant and a benign growth, between diph- 
theria and quinsy, between hysteria and apo- 
plexy, between chronic headache and a tumor of 
the brain, is, so far as the individual is con- 
cerned, likely to be the difference between life 
and death. 

Here it is that the cults absolutely fail. 
Their mistakes fill our hospitals, crowd our 
clinics, and add greatly to our death rate. A 
correct diagnosis precedes all therapeutic en- 
deavor; without it everything is senseless con- 

12 



178 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

jecture. Only a few days ago I saw with a 
brother physician, a case of brain tumor, clear- 
ly such, which for four months had been treated 
by a Christian Science healer. The atrocious 
pain at length forced him to seek competent 
medical advice. While only 10 per cent, of 
brain tumors are operable, yet the excruciating 
pain and the loss of sight incident to the 
growth of the tumor can be relieved by a well 
recognized surgical procedure. Thus while in 
90 per cent, of the cases a radical and curative 
operation cannot be performed, yet the intol- 
erable suffering can be alleviated. 

4. If organic troubles are caused by func- 
tional derangements, and if right thinking will 
affect the functions, why will not the healing 
of organic troubles follow? 

Oh, the tragedy of the word "IF!" If 
Grouchy had obeyed the commands of his em- 
peror, if it had not rained on the morning of 
Waterloo and Napoleon had been able to have 
attacked Wellington early, as he had intended, 
the star of the Man of Destiny would not have 
set on the fateful field. The major premise of 



QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 1 79 

this question is false in that it is a general af- 
firmation. All organic troubles are not caused 
by functional derangements ; as to whether any 
ever are or not will be referred to later. This 
questioner is evidently a close observer, for he 
has noticed that functional disturbances are 
ofttimes coincident with and sometimes precede 
the graver symptoms of organic disease. It is 
to be noted, however, that in both cases the 
functional disturbances are the result of struc- 
tural change, not its cause. This does not mili- 
tate against the well known fact that organic 
disease may occur in a hysterical or neuras- 
thenic. I have known very skillful diagnos- 
ticians to fail to recognize a pneumonia or an 
apoplexy because their symptoms were masked 
by those of hysteria. An excellent illustration 
of functional disturbance preceding an appar- 
ent organic change is seen in general paralysis. 
In this grave disease a neurasthenia may pre- 
cede by weeks or even months the graver symp- 
toms of the malady. It is now believed that 
the cause of paresis is a bacillus known as the 
Bacillus Paralyticus. Moreover, the causes 
of many organic conditions are well recog- 
nized. The atheroma of old age is due to 
a micro-organism as is also epidemic cere- 



l8o THE RELATION OF HEALING 

bro-spinal meningitis. Infantile spinal paraly- 
sis, which in many localities was epidemic last 
year, there being in New York and its environs 
over 3,000 cases, is due either to a toxin or a 
micro-organism. It is hardly necessary to say 
that the causes of such organic conditions as 
typhoid fever, diphtheria and tuberculosis are 
well known. 

As to whether a functional condition can 
ever give rise to an organic state is a mooted 
question. That functional disturbances due to 
psychic causes purely, can do so, I do not be- 
lieve to be possible. Some years ago while in 
Germany, Dr. Ludwig Edinger expressed to 
me the opinion that from neurasthenic condi- 
tions in which there was excessive functioning 
he believed it possible for structural changes to 
develop. He showed me in his laboratory a 
revolving squirrel cage in which were three 
frogs. The frogs had had nothing to eat and 
they were kept constantly in motion as the cage 
revolved; his purpose was, after they had be- 
come utterly exhausted, to examine the nervous 
system and see whether it revealed any evidence 
of organic change. Dr. Edinger told me after- 
wards that by some mischance his experiment 
failed and whether he has since been able to 



QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS l8l 

satisfy himself in this regard I do not know. 
But let us assume that such an outcome of 
neurasthenia is at times possible. The import- 
ant fact to remember is that the time for psy- 
chotherapy in these cases would be before func- 
tional perversion has evolved into structural 
modification. The therapeutic methods appli- 
cable to the former cannot be carried over the 
boundary line. 

But someone may ask, "Does not fear 
sometimes cause death ?" Most assuredly, as 
do also joy and pain, and fatal neurotic vomit- 
ing due to a fixed idea ; but the rationale of their 
action is at the present time purely conjectural. 

It has been only during the past twenty- 
five years that the true character of psychic 
nervous disorders has been appreciated. This 
is in fact of the nature of a renaissance, a 
rebirth of the Platonic idea. "This is the great 
error of our day in the treatment of the human 
body; that physicians separate the soul from 
the body." 

Psychic functional disturbances may coun- 
terfeit any form of organic disease, and this 
so perfectly as to baffle at times the most skill- 
ful diagnostician. To the average layman 
paralysis is paralysis, be it functional or or- 



l82 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

ganic in nature; to him the significance is the 
same. The recovery of an hysterical at the hand 
of a cult is regarded as miraculous and is her- 
alded far and wide, while the same cure by a 
physician attracts no attention whatever. In 
an experience of over twenty years in nervous 
diseases I have seen a great many cures of 
pseudo-structural disease, but never in this 
time have I known a well authenticated case of 
Locomotor Ataxia, General Paresis, Paralysis 
Agitans or Hereditary Chorea to recover. A 
few illustrative cases will best clarify my 
thought. 

Some years ago a young man was brought 
to me with paralysis of the left arm. Loss of 
motion and sensation were absolute, the arm 
hanging perfectly limp from the shoulder. This 
condition developed three weeks after he had 
been to visit a favorite uncle who had recently 
suffered an attack of apoplexy. His mother 
told me that she had been thinking of seeing 
a Christian Science healer. I carefully ex- 
plained the nature of the trouble to her and 
told her that her son would recover whether he 
stayed with me or placed himself under the 
care of a Christian Scientist. He remained 
with me and recovered secundum art em. 



QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 1 83 

A few years since, a young woman from 
another state consulted me for Paraplegia 
(Paralysis of the lower extremities). She 
could not walk or even stand. Her paralysis 
developed shortly after entering a hospital 
where she was placed in a bed adjoining a 
paralyzed woman. She made a good recovery 
and was walking five miles daily when she left 
me. 

The last case is that of a fireman on one of 
our Chicago lines. He fell from his engine and 
suffered a slight scalp wound. Some weeks 
after the injury there occurred a loss of power 
of the left side associated with a complete loss 
of sensation; the special senses also were af- 
fected on this side. The counterfeit of a struct- 
ural paralysis was so complete that the surgeon 
of the road refused to testify; he told methat I 
might be right in thinking it a hysterical 
paralysis, but he believed me mistaken. To the 
jury, paralysis was paralysis, and they gave 
him a large verdict. Three weeks after the 
road had settled his claim he knocked a man 
down in a drunken brawl with the paralyzed 
arm. In these psychic disorders there may not 
be only loss of motion and sensation, but sight, 
hearing, speech, smell and taste as well may be 



184 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

affected. I have known the loss of memory 
and the involvment of the mental faculties to 
be such as to simulate a dementia. The truth 
which I wish to leave with you is this, that in 
all these cases the cure was psychic. 

The law of suggestion is not a discovery of 
the last twenty-five years as some would hove 
us believe ; it is hoary with age ; it is coeval with 
the creation of man; the marvelous results of 
its action have come down to us from the earli- 
est times. There has never been a period in the 
history of Medicine when suggestion has not 
had a place in medical practice, however, it 
may have been misinterpreted and misunder- 
stood because of the crudities and superstition 
of the age. It matters not whether it be in- 
voked by the most expert psycho-pathologist 
or by the medicine man of the savage; the one 
thing to remember is that the true explanation 
of all these phenomena lies in the action of 
Law — Psychic Law. 



QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 1 85 

QUESTIONS ANSWERED BY A. W. DUNNING, M. D. 

5. Assuming that it is true that the effi- 
cacy of many drugs is in the powerful sugges- 
tion that is made to the patient, would it not 
be better on the whole to dispense with the 
use of the drug if the same result could be 
secured through the education of the mind? 

Yes, but it would require several genera- 
tions to so educate the people that they would 
accept this sort of treatment. In other words 
the idea of medicine for disease is so inbred in 
the minds of the people that it is impossible to 
overcome that idea except in rare instances. 
Throughout our classic literature, for ages, 
and even in the Scriptures, the instances are 
frequent of reference to some medicine as a 
remedy for a certain ailment, and in all recent 
times the idea is held constantly before the 
mind of the sick individual so that it has be- 
come too firmly established to be readily super- 
seded by the newer idea of a mere suggestion 
as a remedy in the place of a medicine. To be 
sure, among the more intelligent classes cases 
are much more frequent in which this course 
may be pursued ; but let me say that it has not 
infrequently been my experience, and with 



1 86 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

some of the most intelligent people too, that 
after careful painstaking examination I have 
adopted the plan of giving simple instruction 
and assuring them that they needed no medi- 
cine, only to have them later call my attention 
to that item of my bill and remind me that on 
that particular occasion I did not give them a 
prescription, but simply talked to them. All 
this goes to show that the mind of the patient 
is not satisfied in regard to his ailment unles9 
he is given a medicine. And the process of 
educating him up to this must of necessity be* 
slow and tedious. Yet, as I have said, I should 
answer this question in the affirmative. 

6. In your judgment does psychotherapy 
shed any light upon the nature of disease? 

We must be careful in our use of terms. 
Psychotherapy literally means the curing of a 
mental ailment, but we have come to use it in 
the broader sense of not only the cure of a 
mental ailment, but the use of mental meas- 
ures in producing that cure. 

Even in its broader sense, however, being a 
term signifying treatment only, it cannot be 



QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 187 

interpreted as having any bearing whatever 
upon the cause or nature of the disease. If, 
however, the questioner had in mind the na- 
ture of ailments as shown by a study of the 
patient's mind, then the application of psy- 
chology does reveal the true nature of the diffi- 
culty, as differentiated from a real pathological 
disorder. Neither psychotherapy nor psychol- 
ogy, however, has any bearing upon the na- 
ture of diseases other than those of a mental 
character. 

7. In what ways can the physician and 
minister work together for the betterment of 
the health and well being of the community? 

This is an excellent question. In a general 
way I think that I might say that the physician 
and minister can work together for the better- 
ment of the health and well being of the com- 
munity in just about the same ways as the min- 
ister and the physician can work together for 
the betterment of religion and morality in 
the community. That is, they can and should 
work together and in harmony for both pur- 
poses. 

There are occasionally cases of illness of a 



1 88 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

mental nature, either wholly or in part, in 
which the minister can certainly be of great 
service in aiding the physician. Faith and hope 
are two of the most potent agents for good in 
the cure of disease which we possess, and wise 
physicians in all ages have recognized the fact. 
In so far, therefore, as the minister can aid the 
physician in strengthening the one and inspir- 
ing the other, so far can he be of great service 
to the physician in helping to overcome the sick 
idea which possesses the mind of the patient. 
If the personality of the minister is such that 
he has the power to influence the mind of the 
patient in a greater degree than the physician 
can do to relieve a habit of worry, or to allay 
fear, then he can be of great help to the phy- 
sician in the treatment of this class of ailments. 
We find difficulties in this matter, however, as 
for instance when I suggest to my patients 
that the minister may be able to help them ex- 
claim, "Why Doctor, is it so serious as that?" 
— evidence that, in the minds of the people, the 
minister is to be called upon only when death is 
impending. 

There is much that the minister and the 
physician can do by working together for the 
benefit and health of the community along the 



QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 189 

lines of preventive medicine. A great deal has 
been said in recent times about preventive meas- 
ures against contagious diseases, but very little 
is heard of measures aimed at the prevention 
of nervous diseases, although it is just as im- 
portant that the public mind be enlightened 
upon this subject as upon any other branch 
of preventive medicine. The minister can be 
of great aid to the physician in the accomplish- 
ment of this purpose. When people come to 
realize that, in order to have children grow up 
into strong, evenly balanced stable men and 
women who will be most free from nervous 
disorders it is absolutely necessary that their 
training be divided between the mental and the 
physical, that instead of being coddled and pro- 
tected from every hardship they should be 
taught stoicism and endurance and that their 
education is to be freed from the strife and 
cramming which leads to overstrain, then will 
there be prevented a large portion of the ner- 
vous disorders which characterize the present 
age. The minister and the physician working 
together can accomplish much toward the edu- 
cation of the people to this end. I would have 
the growing child taught that his highest ideal 
includes health and physical ability, and I 



190 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

would so idealize the physical in the minds of 
the young that, even in the selection of life 
companions, they will feel that these qualities 
are positively essential. Through these means 
future generations will be inestimably benefited 
by the production of a race of people who are 
fit to be the fathers and mothers of posterity. 
What we need is not more religion and less 
medicine or more medicine and less religion, 
but a clearing of the atmosphere, getting away 
from cults and dogmas, the opathies and — isms. 
Then, with true religion and true science going 
hand in hand (for religion has nothing to fear 
from science), there will be accomplished the 
greatest good for the greatest number. 



XII 
PSYCHOTHERAPY 

BY 

ISADOR H. CORIAT 

BOSTON, MASS. 



There are limits to what a great leader or a 
prophet can do, limits to what he can say. He recog- 
nizes them, and by obeying them, fulfills his mission. 

Richard C. Cabot, M. D. 
Health is an enduring equilibrium, and nothing 
more. J. J. Putnam, M. D. 



CHAPTER XII. 



PSYCHOTHERAPY. 

It is said of Lord Tennyson, that after he 
had finished reading Browning's "Sordello" 
he asked the rather pertinent question, "Is Sor- 
dello a man, a city or a book?" So tonight 
when I speak of psychotherapy I do not wish 
you to go away in that same doubtful frame of 
mind, pondering whether psychotherapy is a 
man, a city or a book. So I will begin by de- 
fining this somewhat ponderous Greek word. 
Psychotherapy, popularly speaking, means 
Mind Healing. In the more strictly scientific 
sense, it means Psychic Treatment. The term 
Psychotherapy is a bad one. We should rather 
speak of Psychotherapeutics — that is, the meth- 
ods of treatment through psychical means. In 
the course of my talk this evening I shall point 
out what I mean by "psychical means," and 
also attempt to prove to you that psychotherapy 

has nothing to do with either suggestion or 
13 



194 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

with suggestive therapeutics. Suggestion is 
merely the technical device — the machinery 
through which we effect the cure of the patient. 
Of course that may seem paradoxical to many 
of you because the terms psychotherapeutics 
and suggestive therapeutics have been used in- 
terchangeably ; but the more I study the ques- 
tion the more I have come to believe that sug- 
gestion is merely a technical factor — a technical 
device in bringing about the cure. 

Futhermore, psychotherapeutics even in its 
broadest sense is not a cure-all. It is only one 
of the many methods of treatment which are 

the result of the wonderful 
Psychotherapy developments of modern 

Not a Cure-all. medicine When we speak 

of the materialism of mod- 
ern medicine, it means the tendency in medicine 
to look upon diseases — at least the organic dis- 
eases — as changes in the constituent individual 
cells of the organs of the body, and secondly 
the invasion of the body by certain disease 
germs, either directly or through their poisons. 
Naturally, after those epoch-making discover- 
ies by Pasteur and Koch, the tendency was to 
interpret all disease processes in terms of cells, 
or of bacterial invasions, or of bacterial poisons. 



PSYCHOTHERAPY I95 

When I say that a reaction has come upon us 
I do not mean that this reaction has struck 
medicine like lightning from a clear sky, but it 
has been the result rather of the workers in the 
various laboratories and hospitals and clinics 
of different countries. Men such as Charcot, 
the great French neurologist, have shown us 
that there are certain diseases and certain phe- 
nomena which could not be explained in terms 
of cell changes or of bacterial invasion or of 
bacterial poisons. I will speak of those matters 
somewhat in detail a little later. 

When I said that psychotherapeutics was 
not a cure-all, but merely one of the hand- 
maids, as it were, of modern medicine, I meant 
that we must place it side 

~ ,. by side with the treatment 

Adjuvant. \ .. . , 

of diseases through elec- 
tricity (electro-therapeutics), with the treat- 
ment of certain diseases and conditions through 
baths (hydro-therapeutics), the treatment of 
certain diseases with the aid of certain appa- 
ratus and massage, what is known as mechano- 
therapeutics, and finally organo-therapeutics, 
or the treatment of disease by certain glands 
of the body. For instance there are certain 
forms of idiocy associated with deficiency in the 



I96 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

size and a secretion of what is known as the 
thyroid gland in the neck. The artificial ad- 
ministration of this gland can change the un- 
fortunate patient into a useful citizen. 

So psycho-therapeutics means the treat- 
ment of diseases through psychical means — 
whatever that psychical means may be. It is 
not a crude command to the patient, stating, 
"You are well," neither is it, as some of our 
narrow-minded healing cults claim, a negation 
of all disease. It is not anything dogmatic, it 
is a slow process, one of re-education. It means 
that we must have at our command all the 
criteria and methods of modern medicine. 

Everything must be brought to bear upon 
the patient in the matter of the refinements of 
diagnosis before we can expect to apply a 

rational psychotherapy. 
The Importance ^ T f . , 

. _. r m We know, in everyday 

01 Diagnosis. 1<r , 1 . n " c 

life, that the influence of 

the mind upon the body is far-reaching. We 
know how an emotion of fear can make the 
knees tremble and the heart beat rapidly and 
the mouth feel dry and parched. We know 
how an emotion of courage can make one, as 
it were, throw the chest out and the color come 
to the cheeks. With the emotion of fear comes 



PSYCHOTHERAPY 197 

a peculiar mental state of shrinking, and with 
the emotion of courage comes the mental atti- 
tude of confidence. This is the influence of 
the mind upon the body. Or, let us take the 
recent experiments that have been performed on 
dogs by the great Russian physiologist, Paw- 
low. For instance it was found that the mere 
presentation of meat to a dog, without actually 
giving the dog meat to either chew or taste, 
would cause a copious secretion of saliva ; while 
the presentation of sand to the dog would 
cause no secretion at all. In human beings it 
is the same as in dogs. If we think of having 
a delightful meal, the mouth begins to water. 
The same phenomenon therefore occurs in man 
when he thinks of a banquet as in the dog when 
he looks at a bowl of chopped meat. These 
things might also react in an opposite manner. 
We all know that the body may influence the 
mind; how in states of fatigue thinking be- 
comes difficult, how we make slips of the ton- 
gue in speaking and of the pen in talking and 
writing. So you see the problem is not one 
of pure materialism, it is rather the interaction 
of the mind upon the body and the body upon 
the mind. 

Of course a problem like this opens up vast 



I98 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

possibilities on the nature of mind, the nature 
of thought, and the nature of consciousness. 

It opens up the question 

What is 1 , , , 

_ _ ■ „ whether or not conscious- 

Psychotherapy? , 1 <• 1 • 

ness is the result of brain 

activity or whether consciousness runs parallel 
to brain activity. These problems belong more 
to philosophy than to the realms of experi- 
mental psychology. 

Psychotherapeutics — the treatment of dis- 
ease by suggestion in its narrowest term — has 
been used by physicians for centuries; physi- 
cians will tell you that they have always used 
it in one form or another. We grant that ; but 
we must also admit that those of us who have 
worked along psychological lines clearly per- 
ceive that psychotherapeutics must advance 
along the lines of the perfection of technical 
methods. 

Therefore, if we were to define psychother- 
apeutics we would say it is not suggestion, 
neither is it suggestive therapeutics. 

It does not mean the giving of suggestion 
or attempting to make a patient believe what he 
does not care to believe through argument or 
persuasion or bulldozing. If I were asked to 
give a definition of Psychotherapeutics I 



PSYCHOTHERAPY 199 

would say this : Psychotherapeutics is an 
analysis and a synthesis of certain mental 
states. It is really the splitting up and the 
joining together of certain abnormal mental 
states; and suggestion, in whatever form it 
may be used, is merely a technical device by 
which this splitting-up or joining together is 
brought about. For instance, in certain cases 
of multiple personality where several person- 
alities seem to exist in the same patient, there 
is a splitting of the mind, a splitting of con- 
sciousness. The effort of psychotherapeutics is 
to join these portions together through certain 
technical devices. In Dr. Prince's case of Miss 
Beauchamps it would have been useless to have 
dogmatically asserted to the patient, "You are 
a double personality, you are going to be joined 
together." On the contrary it took several 
years of work and the elaboration of certain 
technical devices to bring about the synthesis, 
the joining together, so that the dissociated per- 
sonality afterward became the original Miss 
Beauchamp. So, therefore, I ask of you not to 
confuse modern psychotherapeutics with those 
crude and primitive forms of mental treatment 
that are practiced by the various religio- 
medical cults ; and I regret to say that most of 



200 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

these religio-medical cults have taken their 
origin in Boston. 

When I spoke of the reaction from ma- 
terialism in medicine, I pointed out that it is 
this reaction that is causing the present interest 
in psychotherapeutics, both among the public 
and among physicians. Now, our studies have 
shown us more and more during recent years 
that certain diseases need psychic treatment 
and will yield only to psychic treatment. They 
have further shown that certain other diseases 
will not yield to psychic treatment. Therefore, 
who is to be judge which disease needs psy- 
chotherapeutics and which does not? Natur- 
ally the physician, the expert diagnostician. He 
must exhaust every resource of modern diag- 
nosis, even weeks of patient observation, before 
he can say that such and such cases need phys- 
ical treatment and such and such cases need 
psychic treatment. Think what a dangerous 
procedure it would be if psychic treatment 
were instituted on a case that demanded im- 
mediate operation. I remember one case that 
came to me — a patient who said he "had some- 
thing the matter with the nerves of his stom- 
ach." Superficially it appeared to be a form of 



PSYCHOTHERAPY 201 

nervous dyspepsia; but, on inquiring further 
and getting additional details of his history, I 
became rather suspicious of the condition. I 
gave that patient a test meal, and my analysis 
of the stomach contents showed the presence of 
cancer of the stomach. Supposing I had ac- 
cepted the patient's word, what would his 
chances for life have been? An immediate 
operation was advised, and, under the circum- 
stances, the patient is doing well today. So 
you see the danger of placing any form of 
psychotherapeutics into the hands of unquali- 
fied and untrained individuals without medical 
control. You see furthermore the danger of 
allowing, or rather of having such patients get 
into the hands of some of the members of the 
healing cults. Discrimination must be used; 
the physician must be consulted at every point, 
and every resource of diagnosis should be ex- 
hausted before psychic treatment is instituted. 
I have never seen, in all my experiences, and I 
very much doubt the published affirmative re- 
ports in the experience of some of these healing 
cults, that any organic disease has ever been 
cured through mental or psychic treatment. 
Such a thing is absolutely impossible. 

14 



202 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

We see, therefore, that, although there has 
been a certain amount of 
A New Tendency materialism in medicine 
in Medicine. (and we can say that psy- 

chotherapeutics is the re- 
action from materialism), all the great ad- 
vances in psychotherapeutics and abnormal 
psychology have come from physicians. 

Not only has this been taken up by the med- 
ical profession, but within the last few years, 
there has been a new tendency, a combination 
of religion and medicine, which has created 
such a furor in the so-called Emmanuel move- 
ment. Why it is called the Emmanuel move- 
ment I do not know. It is in certain moral and 
ethical problems — certain cases presenting 
moral and ethical symptoms — that the minister 
can be of great value ; but always with the med- 
ical control behind. If he succeeds, he will 
succeed not only as a clergyman, but also as a 
psychologist. Clergymen without psycholog- 
ical training are as liable to error as laymen 
without psychological training. 

Psycho psychotherapeutics has created in 
the medical profession, particularly in New 
England, a pronounced impression. The 



PSYCHOTHERAPY 203 

movement began with a set of lectures at the 
Lowell Institute in Boston on nervous dis- 
eases. These were followed by two courses in 
French, by Pierre Janet, one on the Psycholog- 
ical Treatment of Disease, one on the Scientific 
Basis of Hypnotism, and by fifteen other lec- 
tures by him on the Psychology of Hysteria. 
The Journal of Abnormal Psychology was soon 
afterwards established. All those things have 
had a profound influence upon the medical pro- 
fession, and all have paved the way for the 
present interest in Psychotherapeutics. This 
year, at Tuft's College in Boston, there is a 
course for the fourth year students, in Ab- 
normal Psychology and Psychotherapeutics — 
the first course in this country on the subject. 
And if one medical school has adopted it, it is 
merely a matter of time when other medical 
schools will be compelled to add a course of 
this kind to their curriculum. 

This brings us to a most important point, 
namely, that a rational Psychotherapeutics can 
only be based upon a rational psychopathology.. 
Without taking into account the fundamental 
researches in abnormal psychology and neur- 
ology psychotherapeutics is not only dangerous 



204 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

but rank charlatanism. We must differentiate 
between what are known as organic nervous 
diseases and functional nervous diseases. 
Sometimes it is very difficult to make the diag- 
nosis; sometimes weeks of observation are re- 
quired, and even then we cannot definitely as- 
certain where the functional ends and the or- 
ganic begins. For instance, I recently saw a 
case which outwardly resembled the most 
marked of functional diseases, called hysteria; 
but on close examination and analysis I found 
that the disease was due to a hardening of the 
tissue of the nervous system, undoubtedly or- 
ganic, although outwardly resembling a func- 
tional disease. There are certain other cases 
which resemble functional diseases such as 
shaking palsy and epilepsy, yet in reality they 
have an organic basis. Because these resemble 
functional conditions no one would ever think 
of treating these diseases through psychother- 
apy. By the term "functional diseases, ,, I 
mean a condition in which we can find no les- 
ions in the nervous tissue. Under such dis- 
eases are comprised hysteria, obsessions, fixed 
ideas, etc., and some mental disturbances. By 
organic diseases I mean the diseases in which 
there is an actual destruction of nerve tissue 



PSYCHOTHERAPY 205 

which can be demonstrated microscopically. 
For instance it is sometimes very difficult to de- 
termine whether we are dealing with a func- 
tional (hysterical) paralysis, or with a paraly- 
sis due to a hemorrhage in the brain, an oc- 
currence popular/y known as "a shock." 

In the functional disorders a combination 
of physical and psychical treatment is usually 
necessary. For instance, in certain cases of ner- 
nervous prostration (neurasthenia) it is very 
seldom that psychic treatment alone will help, 
although it is probable that the disease has a 
purely psychic basis. Frequently some form 
of physical treatment is needed, such as baths, 
modified rest, even drugs. Of course there are 
other conditions, as, for example, certain cases 
of fixed ideas, wherein, in the absence of phys- 
ical complications, purely psychical treatment 
is called for. 

So we must recognize that these diseases, 
whatever they are, are realities ; that in the or- 
ganic states they are based upon well-recog- 
nized laws of the body, of the cell and of the 
functions of the cell; and in the functional 
states upon the well-recognized laws of the 
mind. 

We now come to the third and most import- 



206 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

ant criterion of all, namely, the data furnished 
us by abnormal psychology. By abnormal 

psychology I mean the 

Abnormal u 1 • 1 j r u 

_ , , pS) r chological study of ab- 

Psychology. , , T 

normal mental states. 1 

have previously referred to it as psycho-path- 
ology. Now the great principle of abnormal 
psychology, the principle upon which all the 
observations are based, is what is popularly 
known as "the subconscious." Our modern 
conceptions of the subconscious can be called 
the "new birth" of psychology. Now, the sub- 
conscious, in a popular sense ; is looked upon 
as something supernormal or supernatural. Our 
subconscious selves are supposed to be capable 
of doing what our conscious selves are not 
capable of doing; they are accredited with 
greater activities than we realize. One of the 
English psychologists (Meyers) was respon- 
sible for this popular conception when he stated 
that within us all there are great tanks of con- 
sciousness of which we have no conception — 
that our conscious selves are only a small part 
of our real selves. Our conscious selves are 
like an iceberg, of which seven-eighths is sub- 
merged (the subconscious) and one-eighth 
above the water (the conscious). This theory 



PSYCHOTHERAPY 2QJ 

is known to psychologists as the tank hypothesis 
of the subconscious. The other extreme, 
the purely materialistic, states that the sub- 
conscious states are merely unconscious brain 
states. I believe that most psychologists today 
take the middle standard, and our researches 
have shown that this conservative middle stan- 
dard explains practically everything. 

Now, the word "subconscious" is a very 
bad word. I only use it because it is convenient. 
It brings forth too many misconceptions, it 
makes us think of the submerged hypothesis ; it 
leads us to suppose that our consciousness has 
a certain quality of space of which we have no 
proof, and that the subconscious is something 
underneath consciousness. I believe it is best 
for us to speak of dissociation — that is, instead 
of saying a phenomenon is of a subconscious 
type, it is best to say that it is due to dissocia- 
tion. This dissociation, or splitting, of con- 
sciousness explains all the peculiar phenomena 
of hysteria, of automatic writing, of crystal 
gazing, of multiple personality, and of sys- 
tematized losses of memory (functional am- 
nesia). 

What, then, is the subconscious in the light 
of modern psychology? It is very difficult to 



208 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

make this clear. We all of us know that if we 
have certain experiences we are inclined to re- 
member these experiences and can recall them 
to our minds voluntarily at any time we wish. 
In other words, experiences are stored up in 
our nervous system and reproduced later as 
memories, in the same way as the cylinder of a 
phonograph stores up the vibrations of the 
needle on the wax and reproduces them as 
sound waves, or as when one looks at a bright 
light steadily for a moment or two and then 
closes the eyes, one still sees that bright light 
even after the source of the light has been cut 
off. But suppose a person has had an expe- 
rience which he cannot reproduce voluntarily, 
this experience is called a dissociated expe- 
rience, because it is split off from conscious- 
ness; in other words, it is subconscious. For 
instance, take the case of a patient who was 
sent to me a year and a half or two years ago, 
a man who suddenly left Boston one afternoon 
and came to himself three or four days later in 
a distant city without any recollection of how 
he reached there. He didn't know where he 
w r as or what had happened. He afterwards 
returned to Boston. During his absence his 
actions had not attracted any particular notice, 



PSYCHOTHERAPY 20$ 

therefore he could not have been in an uncon- 
scious state or have been acting peculiarly. 
Yet here were four days cut out from that 
man's mind as a complete blank. It was an 
experience of four days that the patient could 
not reproduce; it was split off from his con- 
sciousness; and yet, by means of a certain 
technical device, I was able to bring back to 
the memory the experience of that blank pe- 
riod in the minutest detail. He had stored up 
certain experiences of those four days, though 
he could not recall them afterwards; but 
through certain psychological means I was able 
to reproduce them. In other words these ex- 
periences were split off, dissociated, subcon- 
scious. 

Furthermore, we know how the emotions 
enter into these peculiar mental states ; and re- 
cently we have been able to measure not only 
the intensity of the emotions but to tell whether 
or not the emotions of certain experiences are 
active, and in that way to cure patients. So you 
see that this exact mental analysis requires not 
only care, time and great skill, but also a knowl- 
edge of certain fundamental principles of psy- 
chology. 

I have shown how certain experiences can 



210 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

be stored up and can be reproduced. Some- 
times experiences are stored up and are repro- 
duced in an automatic manner as fixed ideas 
or obsessions. One essential of all modern psy- 
chotherapeutics, by whatever method utilized, 
is to substitute for those abnormal states health- 
ier mental states. In other words, it is mainly 
one of substitution, but though some times it is 
one of elimination, and occasionally one of sup- 
pression. We must be careful which form we 
use. Some diseases are cured by the suppres- 
sion of certain experiences; other diseases are 
cured by the complete confession of these ex- 
periences. So you see again that the choice of 
means and methods can be safely made only 
by the physician. 

The methods of psychotherapeutics are 
many. Sometimes results can be achieved 
through waking conversation, through merely 
explaining to the patient certain things, because 
a great many patients are the subjects of pop- 
ular misconceptions concerning disease. Some- 
times peculiar mental states have to be induced 
in the patient in order to make suggestion 
work, as it were. In other words, we have to 
get the patient into a certain condition of the 
mind in which suggestibility is increased, such 



PSYCHOTHERAPY 211 

as mild abstraction or hypnosis. At other times 
we have to re-educate the patient. This latter 
is probably the most important of all the meth- 
ods of psychotherapeutics. The mind has to 
be educated to a healthier state, so that it will 
automatically think only along normal lines. 
For instance, you who have had the experience 
of learning to play on the piano very well 
know that, until you had adapted the muscles 
of your fingers to learn where the keys were, 
it was a great task to play; it took all your 
mind ; you couldn't look at the music and play 
at the same time; but, through education of 
your muscles you were finally able to accom- 
plish these things automatically. So in psy- 
chotherapeutics, through repetition, through 
explanation, through using certain technical 
methods of suggestion, the mind begins to work 
automatically in a normal manner, where pre- 
viously it had worked automatically in an ab- 
normal manner. 

The types of diseases that can be helped 
through re-education are many. The organic 
cases have to be absolutely eliminated. There 
is also a percentage of cases in which mechan- 
ical 1 or physical treatment is necessary in com- 
bination with psychic treatment, and still an- 



212 THE RELATION OF HEALING 

other class in which psychic treatment alone 
seems to be of value. The last named includes 
neurasthenia or nervous prostration, hysteria, 
obsessions, fixed ideas, and insomnia. Hyp- 
notic treatment has given remarkable results in 
alcoholism in various pernicious habits of child- 
hood and in the sexual aberrations. 

The field of psychotherapy is limited, yet 
within that field it is master. But to apply it 
indiscriminately to all the ills that flesh is heir 
to is not only a harm to the patient, but it 
shows ignorance of the basic principles upon 
which modern medicine is founded. 



